There really is a light at the end of the tunnel...

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By TJ

For so long I never imagined that I would be able to say this; for all intents and purposes I am a functioning and “normal” (no such thing as normal but that’s a topic for another day) human being.

Let me explain. I am currently 24 years of age and i first felt like I contracted depression at the age of 15, which makes for an approximate battle, with myself, of about 8 or 9 years. After such a substancial period of time I finally feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

That’s right folks, I am living proof that it does indeed get better! And while I have eagerly taken this opportunity to start sharing my experiences, for now it may just seem like show-boating. Regardless I do sincerly hope that this gesture of help on my behalf will reach someone who it may actually help, but then again you (the reader) may just be sitting there thinking “good for you but that doesn’t actually help me”. Well my main reason for stating all this is to highlight that that would have been my reaction once upon a time, back in those darker days of mine.

Since this is a blog, I shan’t go flooding your already over worked minds with wealths of experience and information (partly because I don’t really feel up to it right now – and that’s fine to admit) because if I prattle on for too long then I’m sure you may well get bored and flee from here, never to return, and that would be a damn shame since we’re having so much fun already!

So what I’m going to do instead for today is simply bullet point some initial tips/points/ideas/etc. in the hope that you may well come back to read some more and maybe together we can all get through to tomorrow and the tomorrow after that etc. etc. So without any further a-do…

The author of this blog is living proof that recovery is possible (and obviously if this simplton who is writing this can make some form of recovery then surely anyone and everyone can!)
By “some form of recovery” what i mean is that while I do function fairly normally and don’t suffer the wrath of the Darkest Forces of Evil that live inside my head like I used to, I still do have my bad days and that is a very VERY important part of recovery; because how would you ever know if you actually felt really good if you never occassionally felt monumentally poop (for now i’m sure that you may just want to get more of a balance between the good and the bad days, and that’s a good place to start).
For those of you who are feeling in a particularly dark place right now I give you two sources of inspiration to carry on: Firstly, you are on this website for one reason or another, that means that you have already actively taken steps towards recovery, congratulations to you! (I’m serious). You should celebrate the little things and if you do feel like your world is ending then see this little victory as the start of your new world.

The second morsel of hope, he said chuckling to himself, is that by now you’ve fallen madly in love with my talkative and slightly eccentric writiing style and so now you simply have to carry on through any and everything just so that you can read the next installation of this rivetting blog. While this last point has been intended as a bit of light humour, if you are actually agreeing with me and this blog is pulling you through then please do try and reach out to someone closer to you than I am… but if all else fails then tune in next time!

Please feel free to comment for any topics that you’d like covered and any questions that you’d like to ask me personally.

“I can only show you the door, you must be the one to walk through it” – Morpheus, The Matrix