Writer's Block: Confidences

[fajrdrako]

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This depends on the problem. I'd say ninety per cent of the time, the answer is "friends", though it may be different friends for different problems.

I wouldn't discuss problems with strangers. Sometimes there's a professional who fits the bill - for example, discussing medical problems with my doctor. She isn't exactly a personal friend, but she isn't a stranger, either.

Comments

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

(Why the distinction between "friends" and "family"? One collects one's family, no?)

Have you ever encountered a person who talks openly and freely about personal stuff just because they don't know you, and they feel no strings attached to doing so? It can be a very upsetting circumstance. It feels as if the person takes you as a total blank slate and just moves in. But, also, perhaps the question refers to when one has to take one's problems to a professional whom one does not personally know: would that, maybe, be easier for talking freely about them, than with someone who already has an idea of who you are?

Interesting. Interesting. And I'd say, I never could have spoken with the counselor I met with, had she not already known who I was. But maybe I had an atypical situation, with that! [g]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Why the distinction between "friends" and "family"? One collects one's family, no?

So many say, but I continue to make the distinction. To my mind, there's a difference. An important one - not that it makes friends of any less worth than family, but it isn't the same. (One can't inherit genetic predisposition from friends, for example.)

And you're quite right, I don't want personal confidences from strangers. Quite apart from the discomfort factor, what am I to say? Can't give advice on a life I don't know anything about, to a person whose personality is unknown.