ToughCooki, I feel for your dilemma about telling people your experience. I think you tell in imagination because you, and I, know our friends and relatives can't relate to our problems, and don't want to either. Friends are just waiting for a pause to tell you all about their problems, their children's problems that you don't even know. It's only a therapist who understands and doesn't brush you off. What really gets me is a T who says to talk to friends because "therapists aren't real". That is so stupid and dismissive. Are friends more real when they can't understand anything about your emotions? I feel like quitting with a T as soon as he tells me to find friends, or relatives to talk to. I guess T had plenty of friends and colleagues in the university to tell his stuff to; so, he doesn't know what it's like in the so-called "real world"
I'm so thankful for this forum where we are heard and understood and can share back and forth with friends here.