You Are Not Alone
Believe That All Will Work Out
You know it too well. The darkness that wants so badly to control you. The feelings that make you want to let the blood run free. The sense of despair that comes from feeling like you are trapped in the bottom of a dark, earthen pit and the only way out are tangled vines covered in crude oil.
These feelings are so overpowering that you don't even know if you are capable of living a "normal life." You don't even know if you are capable of walking around every day without hurting yourself, or someone else. You feel so estranged when you look at other people, and this overwhelming sense of uselessness creeps up on you when you try to think about going to work. You feel trapped by the inability to rise and face a new day. You feel like you are living a lie.
You are not alone.
See that woman over there? She is a single mom with three children and is living on welfare; but you wouldn't know it to look at her. The despair she feels is cleverly masked with an aura of hope.
The cashier in your grocery store who is always smiling? You know the one. She was in and out of foster homes her whole life. She never truly felt like she was loved; she never feels like she belongs anywhere.
That lady in line wearing the garishly large diamond ring, the one who's Mercedes is illegally parked in the fire lane? Yes, she feels the demon of despair just as deeply as you do.
Who of these are not "worth" your sympathy? Can you truly stand here as a fellow human being, having felt the deepness of depression yourself, and say that one human being's feelings are "worse" or "better" or even more "deserving" than another's?
No. We all, every single one of us, struggle daily to keep these demons at bay. We all falter sometimes and find that this demon has gained control for a while.
We all understand what you are going through.
You are not alone.
Copyright © 2006 Rebekah FaithRebekah Faith, author of "Picking up the Pieces" is an inspirational columnist. She works as an offshore development manager; she moonlights as a writer, and is also currently working with friends and family, rebuilding a one hundred year old house.