In my experience, they can sometime help and sometimes they can't. If they understand your issue, it can be easier and quicker to talk through your issues with

In my experience, they can sometime help and sometimes they can't. If they understand your issue, it can be easier and quicker to talk through your issues with a friend. Deep, buried anxiety issues are not understood by people that don't experience them. I, a completely healthy young man, constantly worrying about my heart, was met first with concern, then with dismissal as my issues didn't disappear after a week or so. You can become very annoying to friends. People who understand might be better. In my opinion, a therapist is the best, everything is inferior to that.. But that's just what worked for me.