Hi Nichole,

I am terribly sorry for the loss of your mother, I personally do not know what I would do without her, she is my rock. I am sorry for your recent relationship, I  truly hate that for you. I am currently in an emotionally unstable state right now and just today I saw a counselor for the first time in 14 years (I am currently 21), I never believed in the practice of burdening others with my problems, but I recently had such a terrible anxiety attack and was tired of dealing with it alone that I scheduled one and bit the bullet and went for it. I cannot begin to express how much better I felt talking to her, she gave me tips and really just helped with coping in different ways with my problem. Granted talking about it was the hardest part, she was kind and understanding so it made it a bit easier to talk to her. I understand the feeling of the season taking a mental toll, I’m certainly feeling it so I don’t want you to feel alone in that. Coming to the relationship with your brother and father, I would just try to build better memories with them, try and mend what has been broken. I don’t have much experience with those kinds of issues and I apologize on not being able to offer better advice. But when it comes to getting out of ruts, I have a few tips. I would start going to the gym, find a good friend and do that, or even just taking walks or jogging (Humbolt Park looks promising!) get engaged with community activities, or find some friends and find something you all can do weekly such as trivia, or dungeons and dragons, or a book club, etc. Reddit has a good community when it comes to look for people who are looking to play games or start clubs, another thing I recommend is whenever you feel down or any feeling that you don’t want and you cannot go out and exercise or something of that nature is to start naming things you are thankful for and comparing them to things you see inside your apartment or outside, it may seem odd but it has helped me a lot.

I’m sorry if this all is just rambling to you, I just want you to know you aren’t alone and with the right support and determination, things get better. I hope something I said has helped.

-Ian