Coming out can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. We’re talking about the various kinds of coming out. Maybe you’ve struggled with an addiction and feel it’s time to tell your loved ones what’s going on in your life. Perhaps you are lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT)* and figuring out how to talk to your parents about it can cause you anxiety. You could be a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and are just discovering this yourself and want to talk to your sister about her memories. All of these coming-out types of experiences can be rough to go through, even for those with a lot of support. A therapist can help you explore coming out and assist you in making a plan. Therapists can refer you to other sources of support within your communities. Think of them as people who can connect you to a large resource of help.

*We need to clarify a point here.We are not at all comparing having an addiction or being a survivor of sexual abuse with being LGBT.Being LGBT is neither an illness nor something that makes one a survivor of trauma.However, we include it because living in a society that assumes everyone is heterosexual, and everyone is either male or female necessarily makes life’s challenges stressful for a person thinking about coming out to one’s friends, family, church, etc…