Some things look like problems because they happen to us. If I get cancer, it is frightening and sad. But if I can pay for treatment and my family can support me, then it becomes a hard part of my life, not the end of my life. I feel pain, but my world stays in place.
A real problem is different. A real problem breaks the world around you.
I think of a family like mine. One person gets cancer. They empty their savings. They risk their house. They borrow money they know they cannot repay. Every month becomes a choice between treatment and basic life. The illness stops being about the body. It becomes a slow collapse of everything they built.
My illness would make me suffer. Their illness would make them fall.
People often say that everyone has problems, but that is not true in the same way. Some problems you can live through. Other problems change the shape of your entire life. One hurts. The other destroys.
We should not use the same word for both.
