Thoughts from the Mountain Top

I share a lot on social media.  Some people might say I share too much.  You might be surprised, though, to know what I don't share. Anyone who's suffered with depression knows how bad it can be.  I suffered with it for quite a bit of my life, but seriously battled it.  Those bad thoughts were always there, but I managed to bury myself in my life and the lives of those around me.  When I helped people in various ways, I felt useful - like there was a reason I existed. After my daughter's suicide, I have been speaking quite vocally about grief, loss, suicide, and addiction.  I don't shy away from it or hide from it. Even before her death, I knew my life was changing, and that I would need help coping with it.  My parents were elderly and when my mother passed away, I could feel the darkness reaching out to grab me.  For that reason, I was already on medication when my daughter committed suicide.  Since then it's been trial and error with wh...

I'd been reflecting on a few things already over the past few weeks when someone asked the question earlier today, looking back 20 years, if you told yourself ______ you would say BULLSHIT.  The answers were interesting, to say the least. We stayed away from politics, but I would have definitely answered "Donald Trump would be President" among other things. My answer had to do with friendship.  I had been online since the mid 1980's in bulletin boards and Compuserve.  Twenty years ago, there was still a stigma about meeting people in real life that you'd chatted with online.  People seemed to think only axe murderers and predators would talk to you online.  There was still a huge stigma if you said you were going to meet someone you had chatted with online - as if there was more of a danger in going to lunch with someone you'd spent the last three months chatting with online versus someone you met at the mall, or college, or at a club. I'd been strugglin...