The first step to overcoming my mental health issues was figuring out how to handle my deep sadness and mental anguish. Of all my maladies, the depression is the worst for me; at its worst thoughts of death and suicide come far too easily. Once I had a name for it, I researched away only to find that many writers and musicians I look up to have it as well; must be why I identified so much with them. 

Leonard Cohen describes the feeling very well here, and uses the exact term I used before I knew “clinical depression”- anguish. Since May is National Mental Health Awareness Month, I wanted to share his description so that if you or anyone you know identify with it you can seek help and get some hope into your life.

sunset photo taken from my neighborhood in Denver, Colorado