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Depression is not poetic. It’s not romantic. It’s not attention seeking.

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I may not feel love when I’m alone, but at least I don’t cry.

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I worry about you at night. I worry that one day, you will succumb to the lies of your mind. I worry that you will vanish from this world and that I will never know.

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Chemical depression can happen to you even if your life is going great.

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I see you.

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This doctor told me over and over that I have a medical condition. If I truly believe this — if this becomes ingrained in my soul — I might stop beating myself up for calling out of work.

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You feel lonely. Every day and night. Then you feel ashamed because it makes you sound ungrateful.

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The rabbi told the story of a 19-year-old poet destined for greatness who every winter would walk on a certain pond until one year the ice cracked and he drowned. “The ice didn’t know a great poet was walking on it,” the rabbi said. “You see, the ice never knows. . . nature is completely unaware of us.”

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No matter how comfortable things seem, things will change, and you will change.

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The quiet moments expose all the bloody, broken parts of me that have yet to heal.