I have always had a great deal of empathy. In my younger years I would help people to my own detriment. It was something I had to work on, to put myself first.

I have always had a great deal of empathy. In my younger years I would help people to my own detriment. It was something I had to work on, to put myself first. The idea was that in order to help someone else you had to be okay yourself. I have struggled with depression my whole life, and in those early years my natural inclination towards empathy let me to being taken advantage of more often than I truly helped someone. I learned some hard lessons. I always wondered what my empathy would have led me to had I not struggled with my own depression. It's when I read accounts such as this that I am able to understand. It gives me an invaluable insight into that very qustion, and so I always appreciate hearing the accounts of people not burdened by depression. It helps me understand, and in the end, feel less guilty and not so selfish. Thank you for sharing this because it means a lot to people like myself that want to help more than they are truly able to, and to feel less guilty about that fact.