Yes!!!! SO much yes. My last T was like - you have a friend, tell her about the stuff that's going on. Me: Um, she just found out her husband has advanced cancer, plus he needs heart surgery, and her dear dear dear grandma is dying alone with Covid keeping visitors out of the hospital. I'm not going to be all, 'I had a sad day' when she's in the middle of all this stuff!!! And T was like - why not? She's your friend, she needs to listen to your stuff too!
So unreasonable. I agree if my friend had just had a bad day - but what she's dealing with is HUGE and temporary. A few years from now, I'll still be depressed, but her husband will probably be gone, her grandma will be gone, and - well, she'll probably be depressed right there with me. But at least then she would have a little more leisure to back-and-forth about depression & bad stuff that's happened in the past. Besides, a friend is likely to either not know what to say, and just change the subject, or else be TOO supportive (a yes-man, telling you what you want to hear) while a good T may challenge you to challenge yourself, etc. I honestly don't WANT my friends to be able to relate to the stuff I would tell them bc nooooo I don't want anyone else to have gone through any of that stuff. And if they didn't go through it, how could you possibly understand? I mean- I was certain, as a child, that I had less than a 50-50 chance of making it to adulthood. I don't think I've ever met anyone else who lived with that constant awareness of the strong possibility of early death. And thought about it. As a child - 'will I live to be 18 so I can leave?' isn't something a little kid should be thinking about, and I don't think most people can understand how a thing like that changes the way you look at life. A good T would understand that, though. And people here on the forums, God Bless 'em! LOL!