I can relate to this, a lot of the time if someone is telling me one of their problems, I want to say oh IVE dealt with this too, this is what I do, this is how IVE felt about it. I thought it was a good way to relate but I realized it’s just talking about ME and now I try to avoid saying “I” so much when trying to help out. I feel like it takes away from their own problem, shifting the focus on myself. Not intentionally of course. But I realized this when I was telling a friend about something I was dealing with this and they were saying “oh I’ve dealt with this too, blah blah a lot of people deal with this” and they launch into a story about themselves. It just makes me feel small and like my problem is insignificant. Even if a lot of people do deal with the same problem, I still have to get through it, I still have to get to the light at the end of the tunnel, it still hurts when you’re walking through it.

And now here I am talking about ME after I just said I try to avoid it lmao.