December was a dark gift for me—it forced me to get more help, more support, to reach out to my doctor and therapist, to read and learn and practice a more self-compassionate way of living. Maybe it’s the care I engaged in after that day that enabled me to get through the next few months without a similar drop into darkness, even while the events of my life were impossibly difficult, painful, and chaotic in ways I never could have imagined.
