Just hang on. When the world starts to feel like it is folding in on itself, sometimes the best we can do is hope to survive and that is ok. But do so knowing that this state of mind is only temporary and the opportunity to thrive is never far from reach. Sometimes it takes time but, more often than not, a sense of mental peace and calm is just a single moment away. We’re just blinded by a temporary darkness where every time we push through, it pays off immensely. And the rewards are often cumulative in nature. But let’s be clear, life is really f*cking hard sometimes and depression is not something that one can ever easily write off. It is irrational by its very nature and it is something that a growing number of people are burdened with. It is like an unexplained darkness that forms around us when we know we have every reason to feel happy. So, it just doesn’t make sense to recognize it as being normal.

When I am feeling alive and healthy, I have the opportunity to attain positive growth and a sense of fulfillment. Therefore, staying in this zone has become a matter of absolute importance to me. I am learning to recognize that when I am not in a balanced state of happiness, I need to effectively and efficiently check-in with myself to be able to figure what is wrong. Sometimes the answer isn’t clear and it becomes harder to remember that a brighter day is, as it always has been in the past, just right around the corner.

We experience ebbs and flows in life and we each experience them in our own unique and, often times, skewed ways. Recognize that there is something to be learned here; something that will make us stronger in the end. I’ve come to recognize that a sense of continual progress is essential to my wellbeing. There may be times when we are simply unable to run at top speeds and in these times, we must learn to offer ourselves more compassion; to take the temporary darkness as an opportunity to investigate our minds for clues as to why we feel this way.

I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to dig into some of the darker recesses of my mind with the help of friends and family. While it felt like I was always making progress when a discussion was initiated and investigated, it wasn’t always fair to the people in my life when I had to rely on them all too frequently. And, seemingly more often than not, I would be unloading some rather heavy emotional baggage. The trouble was that I was stuck in a loop, so I would be addressing a lot of the same mental symptoms over and over without knowing or understanding why. I knew that I needed something to help push me to the next level or stage of understanding but I didn’t know where to look.

Then, in November of 2017, I had a breakthrough. A close family member recommended that I give Talkspace.com a shot. It’s an online therapy tool. I’m sure there are a number of other really good online therapy tools out there but, for whatever reason, this is the one that found its way to me. I joined and just starting typing everything out… everything that was bothering me. It took me awhile to get to the point where I felt comfortable sharing my core feelings but once I did, I quickly began learning about myself and the cycles and behaviors that I exhibited and WHY I did these things.

Talkspace provided me with the open-world atmosphere that I needed to explore myself. I began to put a lot of work into it and discussed a number of topics that elicited a significant amount of internal fear and discomfort. But as I battled through, my therapist helped arm me with the tools to recognize why a lot of my self-destructive traits were happening in the first place and, most importantly, where they were all rooted. I was able to take this knowledge to disrupt the loop and take greater control of my mind.

If you are thinking of giving Talkspace a shot, I would recommend taking the time to carefully cycle through the therapist matches. If one doesn’t feel perfect for you, keep looking. And you can always change your therapist at any time for whatever reason. When I matched with my current therapist, I knew that I had discovered an incredible asset that would aid me in my internal exploration. Find that person for you.

It is important to keep in mind (pun intended) that you’re going to have to do a lot of training to get into mental shape. Your brain is like a muscle that needs consistent and persistent workouts to perform at a peak level. It is probably the hardest work out there but I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is by far the most rewarding.

Talkspace has provided me with the most beneficial therapy program I have ever been involved in… and that’s saying a lot (I’ve been gung-ho about in-person therapy sessions for about as long as I can remember). I guess, being able to just type away my concerns and frustrations from the computer allowed me to open up in ways that I felt much more self-conscious doing in person. Maybe I haven’t given that enough attention or credit in this post but, at this point, I’m just feeling grateful for my health and want the same for anyone that might be struggling right now.

I wish you only the best in your personal journey. You don’t need to go it alone. If you or someone you might know, be it a loved one or a close friend, could benefit from signing up for Talkspace, why not just give it a shot? You have so much that you could gain from it. What are some tools that you have used in the past to help you through a more difficult time? What are your thoughts about online therapy in general? Please let me know in the comments below.

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