“I have a good marriage, a good family, a nice home, and a stable career. I went to college and I’ve published books. But that’s the thing with depression. It doesn’t care how good your life is. I think that’s one of the hardest things to explain.”
‘Well… It’s complicated…’ An old friend asked me if I was happy.’: Man who suffers from depression explains the difficult balancing act it can be
‘I didn’t have to be strong around my best friends. They were my shoulders to cry and scream on.’: Woman thanks ‘true friendships’ for getting her through rough year
“This year started off rough. I had heart surgery and later got thyroid cancer. I was strong for everyone around me. However, I wasn’t strong for myself. When no one was around, I cried, a lot. Do you know what really helped me? My two best friends. They were strong for me. That’s the thing with true friendships. Not the ‘get the most likes on Instagram’ friendships – the real, raw friendships. We care about is each other. It’s that simple.”
‘It’s been 2 weeks. When will your belly go down?’ ‘When will you stop being moody?’ She is not herself. She probably never will be.’: Mom urges us to ‘rally behind’ women post-labor
“Spouses, ask how she’s feeling. Her entire body just stretched and morphed to share it with another human being. Do you know how absolutely bonkers a woman’s hormones are during pregnancy and after delivery? Becoming a mom for the 1st, 2nd, or even 5th time changes you, forever. Clap for new moms. Your words matter. We need them to be positive.”
‘Please, sit with us. Text us. Stop by and insist on taking our kids for the day because I promise we won’t ask for help. But mama, we need it.’: Mom says all a special needs parent needs is for you to ‘show up’
“When you ask a special needs parent how they’ve been and they roll their eyes, yawn, and say, ‘Eh, it’s been rough, honestly.’ It might be our pride or that we feel guilty. If you have been wondering how you can help, know that it is simple. Show up. Keep showing up.”
‘Mrs. Cynthia, I want to have dark skin like you. Why is your skin so dark?’ My heart stopped.’: Mom urges talking to your children about differences after tender moment with Waffle House employee
“I should’ve known she was thinking about something by the way she stared with her eyebrows furrowed. But she didn’t say a word until Mrs. Cynthia came back to sit with us. I am usually able to stop my kids from asking these things out loud. I see their wheels turning, and I shush them before the words even escape their mouths. But my daughter was too fast, and I was left there, panicking.”
‘What if I never love my child? I hate being a mom.’ The day she was born, I became a different person.’: New mother suffers severe postpartum depression, ‘I was on the brink of suicide’
“The moment after her birth I had so longed for – the intense emotion I was supposed to have, never happened. The feeling I was supposed to get when she first cried, never happened. The love I was ‘supposed’ to have seeing Dan hold our daughter, never happened. The day she was born, I became a different person. I started hearing and seeing things. These images and voices would pop into my head.”
‘My spouse’s needs were put to the side. I focused solely on my child’s needs. So, we ended up getting a divorce.’: Woman grows apart from husband after daughter’s rare genetic disorder diagnosis, enters 40s with ‘my best foot forward’
“I got married, moved to a different city, had a baby, moved back to my hometown, made new friends, lost old ones, and got divorced. I was given news that would change my life, my daughter’s life and my ex-husband’s life forever. She was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder. The expression, ‘you need to put your oxygen mask on first,’ simply does not apply. My husband and I got divorced.”
‘I am grateful for girlfriends. I’m sorry it took me so long to realize you are my heroes.’: Woman thanks her ‘tribe’ of best friends who help deal with the ‘real stuff’
“I just freaking love you. Honestly, I didn’t really ‘get it’ until my 30’s; until the dramas of life started to be really critical. Lifetime level heartbreaks, pregnancies, cancers, divorces, careers, health, death. The real stuff. The real real.”
‘I got the call at 6 p.m., left my kids with my husband and drove to her house with my socks crammed into my Birkenstocks.’: Mom urges others to ‘just show up’ when friends need you, ‘She didn’t need Pinterest, she needed me’
“When your friend’s husband dies unexpectedly, when she has a baby, when she is going through a divorce, she doesn’t care if you baked the cookies from scratch and perfectly placed them in a platter. Show up in your socks with pizza. I held her, loaded her dishwasher, read her kids a story and tucked them in.”
‘My ex-husband married my best friend,’ she tells everyone. We’ve given ‘Sister Wives’ a whole new meaning.’: Wife and ex-wife become best friends after years of fighting, successfully co-parent blended family
“His ex-wife was not a fan of mine. I was his first girlfriend after their divorce and she felt she needed to protect her children. She had no clue who I was. There were times I wanted to knock her upside her head and vise versa. But we finally met for lunch to hash things out. I was nervous. ‘I am not trying to take your place. You are the kids’ mother and I in no way want to replace you.’ ‘I really needed to hear that,’ she told me. Turns out, what I needed was right before me the whole time.”
