Your Life Matters - II

My daughter is an amazing 25-year-old woman with a college degree, a great job she loves, a brother she loves more than anything, and suffers from depression and anxiety. Our family is very close, but my son and husband don't understand how someone who seems to have it all, who always seems happy, can suffer from depression. She is in therapy, which has helped, but she will always have to fight the demons within. She was at my house when it was announced that Kate Spade had taken her own life. The first thing out of her mouth was, "I get it. I understand how she felt." Hearing her say that scared me more than anything has ever scared me in my entire life. I didn’t realize until then just how serious her depression and anxiety were. We immediately started talking about how she is handling things, how her demons make her feel, and made a plan to get her back into therapy. And she is! She talks to me about her therapy and tells me how she gets mad at her therapist sometimes for making her face issues she just pushes aside. Or that she needed to stop using humor to avoid dealing with difficult subjects or situations (think Robin Williams). I am grateful my daughter is strong enough to deal with her illness in a positive way. I bought her ‘My Story Isn’t Finished’ and 'Your Life Matters' along with the key chain. My husband and I sat her down last night and gave them to her. We had a very open discussion about her depression and how scared I was. We all cried a lot, we talked a lot. We reminded her that we are always available to her 24/7. And if she is alone and feeling low, to hold on to her Zox and remember this conversation. And to remember that she is so loved and her story is not finished…she has a lot of living to do! The Zox was a perfect conversation starter. For anyone that is worried about someone suffering from depression, buy a Zox that says what you feel. Give it to that person and have the conversation; the words you feel will just start flowing. Do it for them, do it for you.