Notes from a conversation with a friend. I use ‘we’ since I presume this isn’t uncommon or unrelatable.
Sometimes, we get used to a certain level of discomfort, it becomes our comfort zone. We feel proud of being strong in the face of adversity, however little or trivial it is, and may not take active steps towards fixing the situation for fear of losing the ‘meaning’ associated with the suffering. The suffering would be meaningless if we could just wish it away with some action, so it must be hard to get out of. A very circular logic, but I’ve seen it play out, though I lacked the ability to realize it for what it was – a toxic coping strategy.
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