From October 2022 to February 2023, unbeknownst to me, I was living through the most severe depressive episode of my life. I was formally diagnosed with severe depression and generalized anxiety (on top of my existing combined-type ADHD) in March of 2023 and began treatment soon after. Broken Glass was written during this time, in January of 2023. To this day, it remains one of my most difficult and sincere pieces. It is an exploration of rock bottom that I wrote at rock bottom. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, I was expressing my feelings in the piece; The feeling that, no matter what I did, it would fail and everybody around me was just watching me fall, glad that it wasn’t them (Much like one does if a waiter drops a glass in a restaurant). To this day I have not talked about this time openly; Not even to my own family, and the extent of the issues are far from fully described in this blurb.

Fast forward to today. I am a year out from the beginning of my treatment and, for all intents and purposes, it has been successful. I have made good decisions for the betterment of myself and my family, which has been a boon to my self-esteem. It has not been easy, and there are good and bad days, but with a fair bit of help and a lot of luck, I have come to terms with my abnormal brain chemistry and learned how to not only live, but thrive. It is this success that I want to share with the world; The idea that struggles, no matter how difficult, are temporary, and that there is beauty and reason in all things.