“No one understands- I feel so alone right now.”
“You’re not- how can I help?”
Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, PTSD, bipolar, and other mental health cases are conditions faced and experienced every day. Sometimes it shows outwardly, oftentimes privately and inwardly. When it happens, you see the world and interact with it differently. When you voice that perception, as much progress that’s been made in destigmatizing and trying to understand mental health conditions, there’s still that gap between the person experiencing it in the moment, and the person who has not personally dealt with it. Doctors and therapists are key essentials to recovery, but there’s also another key- community. All those “alone” people. While no one person’s story is the same, there are many similarities and “you, too?” moments. Or the “that sounds like me!” The “alone” starts to become the shared and the shared the supported. For the past two years of treatment I have met so many individuals that I have connected with. It’s made my shame and embarrassment get lifted from my shoulders, because everyone else has felt the same way as I have.
There’s this feeling that is hard to explain how human individuals can have such an impact on one another. It’s almost like a drug. The strongest drug for another human being. Knowing that other people have the same thoughts and feelings makes life a little bit easier. I’m not alone in the dark anymore, thinking that there’s something wrong with me. Having mental illness is not taboo anymore, it’s becoming more accepted and talked about that people don’t have to feel alone. When a person knows you understand what they are feeling, the burden instantly becomes lighter. They know that you’re feeling with them.
Together, we can and will make it through our darkest hours.
iamwilling 