What’s the most difficult thing you’ve had to overcome? How’d you manage to push through? Als...

TinyViolins · 31-35, M

Childhood neglect. Yeah, it's not as bad as other things people have gone through, but learning to love and trust when it's something you've never known is more terrifying than it sounds. You grow up expecting people to hurt and mistreat you, so you learn to keep to yourself, and eventually that becomes the only life you know.

When you don't love yourself, you neglect your health and go down some really dark paths in life. You don't dream or plan ahead because for you there is no happy ending. It's all a hole you fall deeper into every year, which makes escaping even harder. But all the while you're still human. You still feel that need for connection, you just don't know who to trust.

At one point, I got a dog to make the isolation more bearable, and before long I realized that this thing really loved me. It whole-heartedly trusted me. It opened me up to the possibility that I could be loved and accepted, and that realization made me want to be better for the sake of these relationships. It took a lot of work, but I'm pretty happy with where I am in life now.

HowtoDestroyAngels · 46-50, M

I don't know for sure. I think it's a tie between my mitral valve replacement (open heart surgery) and my stroke. I just did what the doctors instructed and leaned heavily on my family for support.