“I want to stop running away from everything. I want to find something to run toward.”

“Recovery begins with honesty. And honesty begins with so much more. Honesty begins with crying while admitting to yourself all of the things you’ve been avoiding. You’re meeting fears whose faces you don’t recognize. You’re recognizing your own face after having lost sight of it. It’s crying above your covers, instead of under them, and appreciating the moment it stops when the tears don’t seem all that bad and you realize this is all just one big, giant lesson, something meant to happen in order for the best to fall together. There are times of thinking and processing, trying to untangle your thoughts in a way that is healthy, even if it all hurts. The hurt is natural, and it sucks but it’s also better than the stairs of self-destruction you’ve fallen down time and time again. You’ll get there even if you don’t know where you’re going. It’s a desire to prove yourself; for yourself and for all the ones you’ve loved. It is painted with apologies to yourself and those you’ve hurt. You’ve hurt yourself intentionally, the pain you brought yourself was overkill. You’ve hurt the ones you love without intending to, maybe never even considering just how much they were hurting while witnessing all of it. Now becomes the time to pick yourself up, acknowledge your wounds as just another part of you that will heal, and take it one stair at a time. Even if you’re stuck on the first step, or the seventh, or the twenty-second, the number of stairs is infinite and progress is progress even in minimality. You’ll get there even if you don’t know where you’re going.“”

“I have lived in my body for years and still need maps and lights to find my way to how I feel.”

“I’m trying to be happy without you but the truth is: my true happiness is with you.”

“Stop trying to change someone who doesn’t want to change. Stop giving chances to someone who abuses your forgiveness. Stop running back to the place where your heart ran from. Stop trusting their words and ignoring their actions. Stop breaking your own heart.”

“Depression is when you can’t feel at all. Anxiety is when you feel too much. Having both is a constant war within your own mind. Having both means never winning.”