This too shall pass?

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Why do people say "this too shall pass," implying that whatever struggles you are dealing with now, they will pass, like everything else. And yet nothing passes. Some things become more attenuated, others remain exactly the same, or get worse. It simply isn't true that our struggles will pass, unless they are very specific to the current moment, and even then they will leave their mark.

In it's broadest sense it means one day we'll all be dead and things which troubled us won't matter a hill of beans. Even in shorter range, most things we worry about won't be an issue a couple of years down the road. Note I said "most" things, because it's not always all.

Yes. I see what you're saying. But often it's used to refer to a crisis. When you're in crisis and you can't see your way out of it, people remind you that it will pass. And I suppose you won't always be in the middle of a crisis, but in many cases you will. With me, my chronic illness is a crisis, and it's always getting worse. I don't know what I'm going to do, and it's almost certainly not going to pass. The deaths of three people close to me in the last nine years are a crisis. It's true that the pain is not as acute, but that too will never pass, and that's exactly the kind of thing that "this too shall pass" is used for.

It’s a phrase that I use when I’m thinking of my own struggles. When I’m having serious issues with PTSD, it helps knowing that a rough time with it will pass because it always does. It wouldn’t be bearable to think that daily panic attacks, nightmares, and near sleepless nights are my new way of life. I wouldn’t usually say that other people’s struggles, especially stuff like the loss of loved ones, will pass or get easier over time because that could read a bit dismissive IMO, but it’s helpful for me to keep in mind with some of my own problems.

^I see how it can be useful to apply to your own struggles without attaching it to other people's struggles, which can seem dismissive. I often see it used as advice, to let people know they won't always be struggling, but many actually will so it feels kind of painful to hear. It's kind of like when you see advice saying that if you are suffering from depression there is help out there when you have already tried the available help and it hasn't worked, and it can take the form of false positivity.

I've never understood why people say that.