Anne, I connected with this piece in so many ways.

Thank you for sharing these parts of yourself, especially the parts that hurt the most. I understand so much how there is a desire to still have that proof. Because, even if things may be better in our lives, or certain situations are remedied, we still hear and feel and re-live certain memories. They scar us in different ways.

I once heard it explained that we seek to make the hurt on the inside, visible on the outside. And I felt understood in that way. Validation is such a huge thing. To be heard, to be acknowledged. Even to know that someone else saw the severity of the thoughts in our mind and told someone else because they were worried, because they saw the hold of depression on us. To have someone see how hard we are trying, that even with scars fading (as I have some too), it doesn't mean everything is suddenly wiped away.

Lots of <3