I can sort of relate in that I did not start doing talk therapy until 2 years ago (having had severe depression for 19 ish years). So I was on the other side of the fence. I would say that, for me anyway, looking INSIDE of myself was not of any importance. They never mentioned it during my time with my family, they never mentioned it when i went to school, they never mentioned it at university and they never mentioned it at work. I never had any emotional IQ ever.. and did not know that emotions were important. Because the aforementioned people never said it was. And when pain comes into it, society teaches us to "bite the pain" , ignore it, and soldier on. There is never anything mentioned about healing, etc. I grew REALLY good at biting the pain and soldiering on (until it lead me to the breakdown that is, lol).

So what I'm saying is that society moulds us to just grow up, get educated, and work for the rest of our lives (eg focus on money and assets). Emotions or self reflection never come into it. And for me, I only was made AWARE of this other side of life once I had a mental illness, nervous breakdown, hospital stint, etc. Still, to this day, I have trouble reconciling the whole concept of "mental health" to real life - I mean outside of boards like this, nobody really cares about self reflection, introspection, healing, etc. It's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. I think this is partly because a majority of the population had a decent upbringing or somehow just arrived at mental health naturally - so they have never HAD to do this stuff. So they just merrily go on their way, making cash, accruing assets, etc etc.