I must admit I don't look at this thread very often, and in many ways, it is good to see people being supporting of each other. As someone who has suffered two bad bouts of depression, once when my first marriage collapsed and the second when i loved to a new city and everything fell apart at the same time and I had few friends in the place i'd moved to, I think I know what others are going through, at least in part.
Holding my dead daughter, and never being able to look into her eyes (stillbirth, 38 weeks) and, and at the other end and at the same time, seeing a parent slowly dying of cancer (and try to support my mum, soon to be widowed, emotionally) has helped reinforce some things. Firstly, the importance of caring family/partner. I have the most supportive, caring wife in the world, who has believed in me, since the day our eyes first met. Many don't get to have that, and I am grateful for what i have. The second, perhaps with a bit of connection with the first is, you never know what someone else has been through - the whole walk a mile in their shows thing. I think its made me more tolerant and compassionate person overall, although there is always room for improvement.
This thread has so many people sharing their emotions and people encouraging others t do the same, but weirdly, if you venture into other threads, the dialogue is the complete opposite, and people who are all about sharing their vulnerabilities here, will then turn around and spend their time insulting others who have a different view for some reason..... the question I have today is, why the Jekyll and Hyde act?
After a couple of weeks off the site, it's only really because i'm home alone for a couple of weeks (fun fo a few days, but now I terribly miss my wife, son and dog), and its raining a lot this week, that i've found myself drifting back to have a look in, but TBH, I think i'm better off getting drunk and watching some mindless TV. Pease to all.