A Beginning...

A few years ago I was diagnosed as having major depression. It did not come as much of a surprise to me or my family, as I'd always had trouble shaking the "black moods", as my mother would call them. It took a lot for me to begin to deal with it, though I always knew to an extent that something was not right. But underneath the depression that sat at the surface was an optimism about myself that I had always known, even if others did not.

It was this optimism that for years kept me from dealing with the depression.

It was also this optimism that has kept me alive and in the fight against depression. It is also this optimism that I now explore as I wage a daily war against my own mind to get above water and stay there. With every victory I attain in this battle, I learn something new about myself. Something that was always there. Always a part of me.

Just hidden under the blanket of depression.