Most people understand what hardship is but not a lot of people know how to develop empathy. When we think about someone who undergoes hardship, we often think about those who are impoverished, disabled or marginalized in some way.
What we fail to think about is subjective hardship.What is subjective hardship?
I define subjective hardship as the hardship that someone internalizes. Often, we cannot see these hardships. But, just because we cannot see them, does not mean that they are not real. Just because someone might seem fine on the outside, does not mean that person is not having real pain on the inside.
If a child from a high-income household expects hundreds of presents each year, and one year that child receives less than expected, there is a good chance that child will be undergoing subjective hardship.
Now, you might be thinking that this spoiled kid is not undergoing any hardship and that’s exactly the problem. The number of people who take their lives has increased in recent years. High schools and colleges are seeing a major increase in mental health issues across young people who are 14 to 24 years old.
Many of the reasons that these numbers are increasing revolve around how we conceptualize hardship. We have to reframe how we think about hardship to better understand what factors are leading to the increase in mental health service use.
Developing empathy for hardship
One of the best ways to understand how people conceptualize subjective hardship is to listen. Active listening is the key. Simply listening to someone…
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