Buddy, empathy doesn’t mean “allow someone to continue with plainly disordered thinking because it’s what they know”. I’m not the person you’re upset with, but the first step in getting over any problem is to force yourself to take that first step.

You’re welcome to hate it, to not want to. It will absolutely be hard, often to the point of feeling actually impossible. It is going to suck, potentially forever.

But you still need to try if you want any hope of getting out of it. Progress is almost imperceptibly slow, but you will make progress if you keep trying.

Expecting the planets to align and for yourself to suddenly not have this battle to fight with yourself through no action of your own is like expecting to win the lottery when you haven’t even bought a ticket.

This is the difference between telling someone what they want to hear so they don’t feel worse in the moment, and pointing them towards a solution that might lead to betterness longer term.

I am formally diagnosed with ADHD, depression, and anxiety. I was informally diagnosed with an autism spectrum “condition” (not sure the term at the moment) by a retired spectrum diagnostician I lived with for a few months. Don’t try to tell me I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about here. I’ve lived it.