Dave suggested that I post this letter here from my original post in The Dark Side. I don't know where I got the idea to do this, maybe it was just out of anger but I finally decided to tell my depression off. Like Dave, I'm not expecting a response, but that's okay, what had to be said was said
Dear depression,
Fuck you. For 15 long years you've controlled my life, and to be perfectly fucking honest I'm sick of it. I know how we met. Being tormented and ostracized by my peers, I needed something to turn to. I mean,what makes more sense than to make myself feel like complete shit when I'm being treated like complete shit? Why not push it into myself? At least then it would make sense why it was done to me if I can find different ways to hate myself and everybody around me. I know how our relationship has been. I wake up feeling alright, and then one stupid little thing happens and it sets me off. "Why does everybody hate me?" "Why am I so fucked up?" "Why can't I get a fucking girlfriend, oh right its because you're ugly as fuck, and you're a fucking idiot". You've made my decisions, you've made my enemies, you've made my life. Worse, you've made me attracted to the feeling of being down, of being hated. I don't really believe that, but you've made it appealing in my mind. I've been trying to let go of that feeling. I may never, but I know now that I can live without it. What about your best friend, anxiety? Yeah, fuck him too. I know how much you love to work together, give me an anxiety attack and follow it up with some depression. Fucking wonderful.
What have you ever done for me? Oh right, fucking nothing. You're a fucking parasite, you feed and feed off of any self-confidence and happiness that I have, until its all gone, along with me. You tell me what to do, you tell me where to go. All the missed opportunities in life, all the friends that I've lost, everything I've let go, it's because of you I could never reach for them again. But now I'm letting you go, and I won't try to reach out. I'll watch you fall, fall, fall, fall, until you're forever gone from my life. It would be a stretch to say that you had full dominance over my life in the first place. I've experienced joy, happiness, accomplishment. But you've sucked it all away, you've made sure that I won't ever remember it, and to make sure I'll never experience it again. And to that I say no more. You've made me feel like I've never had a chance to pull myself up, to never experience things. You've allowed me to be pushed around not only by others, but by myself. You had let them tell me what to do, you let me tell myself what to do when I knew it wasn't in reasoning.
You've invaded every aspect of my life. My long walks around this damn town trying to figure myself out, it was an escape from you. You found me there. Playing guitar. You found me there. Blazing with friends. You found me there too. Just being with people I care about. You found me there too. The hours I've spent wandering around this town trying to escape from you, trying to figure out why me, and why things are the way they are, it isn't enough to escape the hell you've created for me. Not anymore. There's no escaping you, I've learned. No matter where I go, who I'm with, you will find me as long as I hold onto you. You bring back the memories I wished to forget, and you let go of the ones I wanted to hold onto forever. The people who I hold close to my heart, you know how to destroy my care for them within a day. And then you let me gain it back, only to spit on me again. You've made me not give a fuck, you've made me hurt, you've ruined me.
No more.
You're done. I'm fucking through with you, I'm fucking done running from you. No drugs until I know I can live without you. You won't ruin them for me, you won't make me become dependent on them, you won't make me use them to escape you. I know I can, but not while you're around. I know I'm strong enough to handle you, because you're just a worthless fucking piece of shit like you've made me feel for the last 15 years. You reflect everything about yourself onto others, and you make them feel as bad as you do. You're fucking misery. You're a fucking parasite who will no longer feed on me. Know why? There are people who care about me, I'm not a worthless fucking piece of shit, I decide my how my fucking life will be, there is more to life than you've allowed me to see. I fuck up, I do stupid things, I hurt people, I make bad decisions, and I still will. But guess what? THEY'RE MY FUCKING DECISIONS. You won't make me think the only happiness doesn't exist in this life. I won't be laying in bed for hours, I won't be succumbing to the pain you've inflicted upon me for so long. I won't be looking at the happy side of life, I won't be looking at the sad side of life. Both just contradict each other. I will look at life as life is. Good is there, bad is there, and guess what, its fucking life. But you won't decide how I feel. I'm stronger than you, I'm better than you've made me feel, because I'm over you, there's a life past you and I'm gonna fucking live it. In fact, imagine you didn't read a single word of this. Just go back and read the first sentence, and take every single word into account. No two words have ever summed up a four paragraph letter better than that.
Sincerely,
Badfish.