There are many things in life which can break a person. I like to look at it like smashing a piece of pottery, there are things which can smash a vase quickly and traumatically, things that are so stressful that they traumatize the very way your mind perceives the world, making you think you are always in danger, ordinary experiences begin to be perceived as existential threats. Then there are other things too like depression which can slowly chip away at the vase. Those things can equally break a person down but in a much slower, more gradual way. But the end result is still the same, you find yourself broken, smashed into a million pieces bearing no similarity to who you once were. You struggle but eventually you pick the pieces up and find the strength to glue yourself back together again. But that’s not all, there is a flip side to all of this, sometimes the person you glue back together is stronger than the one which was broken in the first place. You take away something from the experience which somehow makes you stronger than you ever thought you could be. There is an ancient Japanese word called Kintsugi, which literally means ‘to repair with gold’. It’s when you take a broken piece of pottery and instead of discarding it you glue it back together with a paste mixed with gold dust. In this way you create a piece of pottery which is more beautiful and unique than the pottery which was smashed in the first place, it’s a beautiful metaphor for these depressing subjects. Always remember there is hope.