Yay, we're doing this again! I'll change to green in just a sec...
I've struggled and am currently struggling with depression, anxiety, OCD (unsure about the severity in comparison to others, but it impacts my life in annoying ways), ODD (which doesn't really hurt me that I can tell, but certain other people in my life seem to consider it a problem), ADHD, and possibly Asperger's or a milder form of autism (we might have me tested; I want to know, but holy crepes it's expensive). That plus the rest of my life is a math problem that even I can solve - it equals absolute chaos. Do I want absolute chaos in my life? Not particularly, but everyone has to deal with stuff - many people dealing with much worse than me, and I'm grateful that I have friends who are so willing to help me.
The Shard is one of the more major reasons I'm sane right now - let's disregard the fact that it might be increasing the anxiety; let me just...okay, under the rug, can't be seen. I have you all to thank for that sanity. So.
Thank you all. Very much.
On the other side of things, I've also heard many people on here express unhappiness with their own mental state. Mental illness (and other problems, including but not limited to struggles with your physical/mental gender, your sexuality, abuse, family troubles, deaths of loved ones and/or health issues, but mental illness is what we're focusing on today) can shove you down, make you feel like you're drowning when everyone else breathes. First, at this point it might as well be a cliche to say it, but YOU ARE NOT ALONE and you never will be. Everyone's experiences are different, but there are other people with mental illness out there. None of us are breathing, so let's help each other swim for shore. *insert driftwood metaphor here * Second, there is a shore. It might not be the soft, grassy, comforting shore you expected. It might be hard and unforgiving and make you wish you could slip back into the Ocean of Doom, but hold on. If you stay there and don't give up, you can discover that that hard stone is diamond, beautiful and strong and valuable. Just like you.
So please live. Keep trying. It will be worth it, and we can all help each other get there.
*steps off dramatic stage of metaphors* There's probably also a way to filter it in Photoshop. There was a green default 17S profile picture floating around last time.