Counseling 101: How to Give Positive & Honest Emotional Support

Here are some quick go-to ways to reassure people who are despondent, or otherwise need reassuring and cheering up.

When someone makes a mistake and says, “I feel so stupid!”

• Tell them, “That’s only because you are.”

When someone comes to you and says, “My life has no meaning,”

• Let them know, “It’s alright — no life has any meaning.”

If someone tells you, “I feel like I haven’t accomplished anything in my life,”

• Reassure them that, “Even if you had, anyone who appreciates your accomplishment will themselves die anyway, and some day the Earth will be no more.”

When your friend expresses, “I feel guilty for feeling sad — there are people much worse off than me,”

• Support them by saying, “It’s OK to feel sad. Your life is terrible.”

When you are told, “I feel like such a fraud,”

• Let the person know, “Don’t worry, we all see through you.”

When a close friend says, “My parents have disowned me,”

• Just say, “It’s OK, they disown their trash every Tuesday.”

When a loved one says, “I am so depressed about the destruction of the environment,”

• Hold them and whisper, “Don’t worry, soon there will be nothing left to be depressed about.”

When a person looks at themselves in their phone and says, “I’m getting so old,”

• Just say, “You look better now than you will in 10 years, or for that matter in 10 days.”

When someone complains, “I hate my job,”

• Say, “It pays you enough to keep you alive so you can go back to it the next day.”

And if someone comes up and announces, “I am so proud that I stuck to my diet!”

• Nod and say, “You will leave an attractive corpse.”

For something completely different, see my other Medium blog, @EricIndiana