Hi

[JackDalton]

I've lurked for a while, figured it was time to post something.

As for who I am, I guess that's kind of a mystery right now, even to me. I've suffered from moderate to severe depression / social anxiety / shyness since I was about 15 (I'm now in my early 30s); though I cover it well most of the time, it still gets in my way occasionally which can turn into a spiral every once in a while.

These days I'm mostly a skeptic agnostic, but at the same time, want to believe there's at least some purpose to being here. I was raised in a christian faith, but believe there's too much baggage in any organized judeo-christian faiths these days to be useful to me. Bits of my life would probably be considered highly successful by most people, and even miraculous at times to me; I can't completely discount a subjective reality view or one where IM has some influence, but at the same time, I can't figure it out enough to overcome certain patterns in more interpersonal corners of my life that keep cropping up.

I've had a few events in the last several years that have re-aggravated my depression, and simultaneously tried to make me try to find a better way instead of just accepting it, and I stumbled into here.

[Andrew Gubb]

Hi and welcome! I think you'll find SP.com has some great resources for what you're looking for. If you want to dive into a particular issue, don't hesitate to start a thread, and you'll get lots of different perspectives you can think on.