Therapy is great. Nothing wrong with therapists. They truly help people, they listen, they "act" like they care. It's their job. They need to feed their families. Again, nothing wrong with that.
But it shows that society is flawed.
First, your time is limited. Usually an hour. You're pouring your heart out and then — time's up, see you next week. You're mid-sentence about the worst thing that's ever happened to you and someone's glancing at a clock. I think therapy should be free for all. Mental health shouldn't be a luxury. You shouldn't need good insurance or a fat bank account to talk to someone about your feelings. That's insane.
But that's not even the bigger issue.
The bigger issue is that people are paying for therapy because they don't want to vent to the people around them. With parents, that makes sense. There are things you can't tell your mom and dad. But a close friend you trust? Someone who's supposed to be there for you? Someone you've known for years?
People are so insecure and self-conscious that they think venting is a sign of weakness. They think their friends will judge them for "always complaining." They think if they bring up how they're really feeling, they'll be seen as a burden. As too much. As the friend that always has problems. So instead of opening up to the people who are supposed to love them, they'd rather pay a stranger and hide the fact that they're going at all.
Think about that. We live in a world where people would rather pay $150 an hour to talk to someone they don't know than be honest with the people they do know. Because being honest feels more dangerous than being broke.
And it goes both ways. The reason people don't vent to their friends is because a lot of friends suck at listening. They make it about themselves. They get uncomfortable. They try to fix you instead of just being there. Or worse — they talk about it behind your back. So people learn to shut up. They learn that opening up gets punished. And therapy becomes the only safe space.
That's not a win for therapy. That's a loss for humanity.
We've normalized paying for connection instead of building real ones. We've made vulnerability so scary that people need a professional to hold space for them because nobody in their life will. Your best friend should be able to do what a therapist does. Not the clinical stuff — but the listening. The not judging. The just being there.
If your friend is venting to you, that's not them being weak. That's them trusting you. That's a compliment. Act like it.
The system isn't broken because therapists exist. The system is broken because we made a world where people feel safer with a stranger than with the people who claim to love them.
It's a flawed system.