If you are depressed or s******l, there are many paths back to life which are available to you. It means something to feel this way, and it is understandable that this happens given what you went through. You are still you. You aren't broken beyond repair, and you aren't bad for feeling what you feel. People don't get like this for no reason. It isn't permanent especially when it feels like it is

Once the reason for the feeling is known and seen and held with enough love, it becomes way way easier to be compassionate to oneself and address the wounds we are carrying. It becomes way easier to get help, which in turn makes many other steps easier still

We isolate ourselves because we feel ashamed for turning out this way. We were taught that this is how we make ourselves good. I have good news for you here. We don't need to do this to be good. We were born good. It is still there

As long as you keep with it at whatever pace works for you and show yourself some strong genuine kindness and love in whatever way matters to you, you will progress out. It does happen a lot and increasingly often, nobody is beyond healing. Progress starts slow as sun melts ice, and with consistent exposure to the light of our attention and love it will melt completely. Our cold selves pushed and locked away so long ago will come back

Crying is a very good thing to do, even when alone. Ice within melts into tears. It flushes the sinuses and eyes, releases endorphins, and expresses the hurt we have been carrying all this way. We can set it down, we can look at it with kindness, and we can progress into a space where this experience is a strength far more than an injury

I have been in this state for a very long time, over a decade. I chose to sit here and study it so I could show others the way out and warn them of the deception depression will use, the lie that the pain won't end. It was very hard to do alone, and I was not always alone

Beware the serpent, the lie of unending pain. Every storm ends, and after every flood there comes a bloom

You are not beyond help

Here, have a lifeline.