Suicidal, depressed, anxious? How to hang in there?

There’s no one way to do this. Personally, I just tried to focus on the things I did enjoy about life and rid myself of those things that I didn’t . . . not necessarily rid myself for good of them, just while I was hanging on. So yeah, that meant that I drank a lot, and smoked weed and hung out with friends. It meant I watched a lot of sports and TV shows I liked. Most importantly though, it also meant that I let curiosity back into my life.

That’s the one I want you to focus on. Not necessarily curiosity but whatever you find it is for you. Go back to a time when you remember being happy or doing something that made you happy. DO NOT LET IT BE A PERSON! I know it may be but this is your life, you need to find you and no matter how much you think your happiness may have been because of them, it wasn’t. You simply let them pull it out of you or maybe they just knew how. Others will know too but you need to learn what it takes to pull it out of yourself. Listen! I'm somewhat hypocritical in saying that because I waited 4 years throughout high school for a girl and then 6 years after high school for another only to end up dating neither of them. One of the things though that I realized made me happy was the potential for love, the prospect of it, the joy of it. That could be something you hold onto and search for but just keep in mind that that comes with A LOT of heartbreak. On both sides.

Go back to that time when you were happy and start to try to regain that through doing those things, pursuing them or whatever. You’re just hanging around anyway so you might as well.

Suicidal? Depressed? Anxious? Hang in there!

Life can be tough. Sometimes the only thing we can do is just hang in there. I was suicidal for a period of time. That was over 20 years ago now. No one knew then and few people know now. Life seemed pointless and maybe it was or is. I don’t know. I hung in there though and eventually I started to think differently about things. If life was pointless then I could just give it my own point. If there was a point to life then the only way I could find it would be by hanging around.

You are still here. Stay here! There’s a ton of really fun things to do. Believe it or not, there’s also a lot of really cool people. Yes, there’s some shitty people as well but you can get better and better at avoiding them or standing up to them or even changing them.

If you think the world sucks then stay and make it better! If you go it will suck even more because then we would have lost someone that wants it to be better.

I’m 40 now and I’m less mature than when I was 20 but I’m way happier! I’m still figuring things out though and I hope I always will be. We don’t have the answers, no one does. Yeah sure they may have found what works for them and it may even work for a lot of people . . . maybe even you. You’ll never figure it out unless you stay around though.

I owned goats and ducks and started businesses and went through bankruptcy and lost my house. I had an ice forest and an art warehouse. I drove across country and moved to Boston and got married. I used to poop my pants and honestly, still probably do (I’m on a good streak though of at least a year!) I’m taking improv classes and going back to school to get my law degree. There’s so many stupid things and not so stupid things that I’ve done that I never would have gotten to do along the way if I ended my life.

Just hang in there! You are not alone but it is up to you to hang on and climb out. There’s plenty of us here to help and give advice and share our experiences. And there’s those that can learn from yours!