I'm speaking even to myself here. For those struggling with issues, be it great or small, we instinctively tend to hug them and use them as crutches and bare them senselessly while we expect others to give us understanding and/or even pity.
The sad news is that while it would have been nice for people to be understanding and emphatic of your struggles, realistically IT MAY NEVER HAPPEN OR EVEN OFTEN ENOUGH! The responsibility is on YOU to understand your own struggles and strive to be rid of them.
Instead of EXPECTING others to sympathize with you, a very healthy approach and insight is to BE VERY SENSITIVE as to how your issues may even affect others. Be very mindful when it acts up and take responsibility if it offended/affected anyone. That's a very big pill to swallow that often times get stuck in my own throat.
Everyone has a one-sided focus to the story of the biblical Jabez's prayer, as they focus on his prayer for prosperity, when another profound thing he prayed was not to let his issues affect others 'Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, THAT I MAY NOT CAUSE PAIN.' So God granted him what he requested" (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)
Jabez' mother named him 'pain' (Jabez) because she bore him in pain. Chances were he was going to grow up being ridiculed for that name and may even develop issues from it. Yet he was very mindful and responsible enough to ask God to not let him be a pain to others. How profound!
I think we also need to be very mindful of our own issues and how they may even affect others. I myself have been struggling with a particular issue for more than 40 years. There were many times when people did not act kindly to me when I thought they could be more sensitive. But there were many times when it has affected others and I fail to see that as I am so blinded by my own need for compassion, I ended up using it as a crutch if you will, as if I have license to act out because it is something I struggle with. And honestly, that is very unfair and selfish behavior.
Jesus came to set captives free of every issue, struggle and pain. So provision was made at the cross for us to get healing even from our emotions. When we chose to turn a blind eye to our own issues and even hug them and use them as crutches for sympathy, we are acting in disobedience and selfishness as we are literally saying that what Jesus did on the cross was not relevant enough or didn't mean enough for us to be able to apply its healing virtue to our situations.
Healing is provided for us in many ways, not just in the laying on of hands but also in counseling and even in our own free will to break an unhealthy cycle. But at the root of all need for healing we find the foot of the cross, where the ground is level for us all and where every provision was made so that we all who are held captive by our own devices, can be set free! So today as of reading this, you no longer have an excuse!
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