Aww. Thank you so so so very much for your wonderful reply. I greatly appreciate your response. I am doing much, much better. I have my moments for sure and I get into ruts sometimes. Nothing as extreme as my worst though. The war never seems to be fully over, but I've learned how to deal with the battles when they come up and trudge through the mess. I never want to forget what I went through though when it comes to things like this. That's the blessing I take from my struggle. If I can help others and they know they aren't alone, that they can get through it (even though it's one of the hardest things to get through) then I take my struggles as a blessing. It's hard to help people when you don't understand.

As painful as life is, community is strength. Painful things happen in everyone's lives, and everyone has their own struggles. You have to take the good and bad together when they come. There can be no good without bad, and no bad without good.

What I mean by that is, if every day was a "good" day, nothing ever happened, ever broke down, then we wouldn't view it as a good day. It would just be a day. No happy, no sad, no angry, no anything. It's like when you're working. You look forward to having your days off. But when you're not working, every day is the same and unless you change things up, it's just the same monotony constantly. Good things are already too easily taken for granted.

I'll even use a...very hard thing. Losing a child. Losing a child is painful. Extremely. It's one of the worst nightmares anyone can have. Unfortunately, people do live those nightmares. There are many children who have cancer or die of medical conditions or any number of things. It's an agonizing pain that only those who have experienced it can truly understand. Of course, parents would give anything to have their children back, and I won't diminish their pain in the slightest. The one good thing that can come of that loss (not bringing religion into it) is they can connect and relate to others on a much deeper level. They can help them in their struggles, and they know there are those who understand. So if you can use a bad painful experience to relate to others and help pull them through, then what you struggled through wasn't in vain. Your struggle was for something.

It's taken me a long time to be able find the good things that can come out of the worst of times. We can't control things outside of our control, but using things that have happened to bring about good at least puts meaning in our lives. Even the darkest parts.