What They Don't Tell You About Recovering From Depression

[My experiences are my own and do not reflect, nor do I speak for, other depressive experiences or depression sufferers. Article contains non-explicit mentions of self-harm, therefore reader discretion is advised.]

Although it's probably not the best note to end 2016 on, and definitely not the most positive to start 2017, depression will never leave you. Not entirely. Now, don't get me wrong, it does get better. It gets so much better - the day you're able to breathe in and feel the cold, crisp winter air fill your lungs and compare it to being alive as opposed to being suffocated, it's wonderful. Finally feeling happiness and sadness and excitement again after months of being numb is indescribable. But it doesn't end there.

Being queer in a binary society*

* Queer v.s. Binary in relation to sexuality, not gender.

Ever since I was very young, I've known I didn't identify as heterosexual. Though I was too young to really know what this meant in the grand scheme of things, I knew it meant that I was different to most of the other boys and girls in my class. As an eight year old, different didn't automatically equate to bad like it unfortunately does for some people, and I decided my sexuality was something that could be saved to think about for another day - there was play time to focus on, after all.