Member-only story
MENTAL HEALTH
If I Can Heal, You Can Too
Focus on who you can be — not on who you are
Do you enjoy motivational speeches? I don’t. Not a fan at all. I would go as far as to say that I outright hate any motivational, self-improvement, life hack sort of nonsense. It has never worked for me and never will. When your depression has taken over, there is no such thing as intrinsic motivation. And the last thing you want to hear is how only by being productive you will become a valuable member of society.
Why would I tell you this? To explain the humble purpose of this piece. This is not some soft, clickbaity kind of article along the lines of “These 5 steps helped me to heal” or “I did this one thing to get better, and so should you!”. If you were looking for a failsafe method to battle depression, then — I’m so sorry — you need to keep looking.
What I will try to explain is what an unforeseen miracle it was for me to “recover” from life-long, debilitating depression. If recovery is the right term at all because there is no such thing as a full recovery from severe and treatment-resistant depression. I’ll put it this way: If I was able to heal up to a point where I can genuinely say that I no longer desperately want my life to end, then you can too. Because for the longest time I was absolutely and unfailingly…
