Very well said, Sky.

Genesis, I just wanted to come in here and give you a huge hug (if you want one) ((((((((((((Genesis))))))))))))! I actually don't visit the depression forum very often, but today I popped in and I found your post.

I want to invite you to join us over in the self-injury forum, too. I don't recall seeing you post there. If you have and I missed it, I apologize. There are a LOT of people over there who know just what you mean about killing the pain by hurting yourself. I happen to be one of them. I am working really hard on quitting cutting, but I'm not there just yet. That's how it is for a lot of us on the forum. We're all trying to figure out how to quit. Sometimes visiting the si forum was triggering to me in the beginning, just because it made me think about si more often. But after the initial intro to the forum wears off, I think overall it's a good experience. It's really nice to be able to say "gosh I want to do this" or "guess what? I didn't do it even though I wanted to!!" or even "I cut and I feel bad about it now" because there are LOTS of people in that forum that genuinely understand, unlike in the rest of the world. And sometimes people have some REALLY great ideas on how to feel better without having to cut.

Best of luck to you. Keep hanging in there. You have reasons to live.

Angela