I can be rude when I'm angry and, thankfully, there are those here to call me out when I am and not allow me to get away with it.

And you're very new here and, Lord knows that I don't want to run anyone away.

So I'll just say, yes, it's true, there are many of us who are absolutely alone.

Completely. On our "Emergency Contact" names you'll find our social worker's name, our PCP's name or maybe a neighbors name. But you won't find the name of a spouse, sibling, parent, child, uncle, aunt, cousin, friend, etc., because if we ever had any, they are long, long gone.

You write of your daughter. You are fortunate that you have one another. She's fortunate to have a parent as empathetic as you. You can't feel the pain, please don't tell your daughter that you can, but "acknowledge your pain," that's good. That's something comforting to hear. "I don't know what your pain feels like, but I acknowledge that you feel it and if there's anything that I can do, even if it means leaving you alone for awhile, please let me know." In our better moments, that feels good even though, in our worst moments, it may sound condescending.

It absolutely sounds condescending to hear "I know and I will tell you the world is a better place because you are in it, you make it a better place by your very existence." Why? Because you don't know those things. Those are the trite things that we've heard, maybe, hundreds (myself, thousands) of times: it didn't ring true at the first AA meeting that we were forced to attend (although not an alcoholic) nor at the one-thousandth CA meeting we were forced to attend (never having touched cocaine).

And I'm using the collective "we" because I know that I speak for a few of us. Some of us really do feel hopeless, as if there's nothing more that we can do for ourselves and nothing else that anyone can do for us.

Just be gentle with us. I never thought that I would be an angry person but this depression is different than the first. My first reaction when I read the quoted sentence was to tear you apart, but I'm learning that if I'll just calm down and try to explain my point of view that I'll be more apt to be understood.

Just ask. Don't tell us that you know anything about us because we resent that type of statement. Don't tell us that you can imagine because you can't. It's fine to interject your own hope, even though we have none so don't expect us to be too appreciative.

That's it. I wasn't rude, I don't think?