Drowning. Fighting to swim. Numbness. The numbness takes over as you look around you, and all you see is darkness, so you stop swimming for a while. You embrace it. Let it take over. Lonely. You’re alone in this big ocean. There is no one to save you. Only you. Tired. You are so tired. You don’t want to continue swimming, you don’t want to fight to push to the surface, because will it even be worth it? Then you have the choice: Stop swimming completely or fight.

I don’t know what your story is. In fact, I don’t even know you. All I know is that I know what it feels like to want to give up. I know what it feels like to not even want to get out of bed because doing that would mean facing the world. It would mean that you would have to pretend that you aren’t hurting, that you are completely OK with everything that is going on in your life. But you’re not. You aren’t OK, and it’s OK to not to be.

First off, I want to start by saying good job. You’re breathing. I know what it feels like to be so tired, emotionally and physically, that every breath you take is a struggle. But look at you, pushing through. Taking it one breath at a time. At the end of the day, you may completely fall apart. But you made it through the day. You are one step closer to overcoming the obstacle that you are facing, which you can and will!

You can do it! I know that the doubts running through your head may say otherwise, but guess what? They are just doubts, and they don’t mean anything. You are better than what you are thinking. Don’t listen to the voices in your head. Take those doubts and turn them into a platform to build your success on.

You will get there one day. I know you think that you’re never going anywhere, but you are. If you continue fighting, no matter how hard it seems to be, you will overcome this obstacle. You may not be the same person in the end, but that’s understandable. You were put through a test, you had to make choices and decisions the old you never would have had to. You went through something you thought you couldn’t, and you made it through. You may still be picking up the pieces, but that is all a part of life.

And just because you made the courageous decision to keep fighting, it doesn’t mean that you won’t still have rough patches. Trust me, as someone battling anxiety and depression plus other mental illnesses, it seems I make the decision to keep fighting at least once a day. That doesn’t mean I am weak—it means that I’m human.

So the times that you feel like you are drowning, and it seems like too much effort to fight to get back to the surface. Fight anyway. Your future self will thank you for it. When you have a husband/wife to come home to, and you are so overwhelmingly happy with your life, you will be glad that you fought. Your spouse will be happy that you fought. You will look back on this time in your life and see how it was all just preparing you for a beautiful future. Don’t give up. You can make it through this. Always keep fighting.

Love,

A Person Who Believes in You