On Being Believed

By Jackie Leon

We need to talk about something that happens far too often: dismissing what people have lived through.

"That didn't happen." "You're remembering it wrong." "You're being too sensitive." "You're making things up."

These words do more than dismiss. They suppress. They tell someone that their reality, their pain, their truth doesn't deserve space in the world.

This has happened to me on numerous occasions and it makes you question your own reality. No one else lives inside your head or your heart. No one else experienced that moment through your eyes, with your history, carrying your wounds. When we tell someone their experience isn't real or isn't valid, we're not protecting truth. We're enforcing silence.

This happens constantly to survivors of abuse. To people who've faced discrimination. To anyone whose story makes others uncomfortable. The pattern is always the same: make it smaller than it was, question whether it really happened, then deny it altogether. And each time it happens, it teaches people that speaking up costs more than staying quiet.

It takes an extreme amount of courage to speak up. So if you have nothing kind to say, don't say it.

Suppressing our stories, our emotions, our memories, because we fear rejection or disbelief comes at a devastating cost. It disconnects us from ourselves and from each other.

So here's what I'm asking: Listen.

When someone shares their experience, especially when it's difficult, resist the urge to debate, correct, or dismiss. You don't have to fix it or fully understand it. You just have to honor that it's theirs.

Believing people, truly listening, isn't about being naive. It's about recognizing that every person's inner world is complex, valid, and fundamentally unknowable to anyone else.

Let's create spaces where people can speak their truth without having to fight to prove it first.

For reflection: What truth have you been afraid to speak?