[TH Anonymous]

[SIZE="a"]I began working with a new therapist two months ago and the main thing she has been focusing on is the bullying I've experienced in the past. I swear to god, it's like every session for the past eight or nine weeks bullying gets brought up and it takes up a significant part of my sessions. It is incredibly infuriating and I'm feeling like she might be gaslighting me or something to that extent.

She's basically been saying that I should feel bad for those who used to bully me. Feel bad for them because when we'd been young, those bullies probably had a rough home life or were being picked on themselves. Feel bad for them because they probably had a deadbeat father and a mother who relied on drugs to soothe or engage in illicit activities to provide for her family as a single mother.

I have absolutely no sympathy for my bullies. What excuses can I make for them, to justify what they might or might not have been going through? I am not able to make the connection between my traumas and the inner turmoil that might supposedly have been going on in those who gave me a hard time. But should I have sympathy for them? Should I see where they might've been coming from?

Personally, I give absolutely zero fucks about them. I can take it a step or two further, but that'd probably be breaking code of conduct or just generally make me look like an asshole; so I'll leave it here. Am I a bad person for not having any sympathy? Not being willing to try to rationalize where they were coming from or empathize with any difficult home lift they might've had?

She also says they probably grew up and are regretting the way they treated me back in the day. I find that hard to believe. I don't want their forgiveness; refer to the second sentence of the paragraph above for a vague idea of what I want from them.

Anyways, this is really upsetting to me and I'm not sure what to do.

I tried Googling it but it was of absolutely no help. Probably because I used a "hot button" word: "bullied".
[/size]