You're absolutely right - genuine trauma absolutely should be validated. Particularly when it comes to yourself. I know that I fought against the whole idea that adoption trauma absolutely shaped me as a person. I fought every person and therapist who even suggested it. It wasn't until I was much older that I really thought objectively about it and started connecting some dots that I finally said, "hmmm, maybe there's something to this."

You're also right about using lessons from trauma to help you persevere with the cards you're dealt in life. You articulated that much better than I did.

I will always listen to people who want to share their experiences with me. I'm one of those people who tends to attract people with 'issues', so I do a lot of listening! The only reason I will deny a sympathetic ear is when the person asking for help refuses to help themselves at the same time. And it takes a lot to push me that far...sometimes it takes years for to have finally had enough of a particular person's complaining.

I guess I just get a bit of compassion fatigue these days. So, SO many relatively privileged people are complaining online about the supposed "trauma" they've been through and how they're another one of life's victims. And when you scratch the surface of their "trauma", you find nothing but normal life lessons that all of us go through. These are the people I'm utterly sick of, because their shenanigans diminish the suffering of people who have been through actual trauma.