What Quora and Medium Brought to My Life. What do you have Vocal?

I had experienced some trauma in my life. The kind that feels like someone punched you in the stomach so hard it took your breath away. The kind that leaves you stinking because getting up to take a shower is just too much work and not worth it. You completely shut down, isolate, withdraw into yourself. Don't answer your phone, your door because you are not sure you even exist. Do you? Can you feel this much pain and exist? About two weeks had gone by with me in a trance most of the time. Crying and was reminded of how alone I was. When I somehow found myself on Quora. I saw that people all over the world were also depressed. Heartbroken, or just felt unloved. It wasn't just me. They were asking for help. For advice, for anyone to listen to and understand. I started to answer other quorans. Advise the lost and the meek. Connect and relate with them.

"It is part of the human experience to feel pain. Do not be afraid, open yourself up to it."

I started to realize this was not only helping them. It was also helping me. I began to understand; I was able to help people I didn't even know. It made me feel good to do it. As it turns out, not only did I help them, I better understood their situation, and not only did it make me feel useful, again, I was a decent writer as well. I spent less and less time analyzing my problems and how terrible my life was and spent more time trying to help others feel good about their life. That there had to be a reason, if only once, and if only, to be happy. I even named it my pursuit to find happiness and invited others to join me in finding it. I had written that on every bio-line for any writing I did then. So when I see it now, I get this feeling of accomplishment. My suffering and my strength led me on that journey and I'm still on it.

"You look at me and cry. Everything hurts. I look at you and wisper. Everything heals."

I started my own space on Quora, and I had over 4. k followers in a month. There is so much more to writing when trying to connect with people on a deeper level. You cannot help but start uncovering layers in yourself in the process. There is something therapeutic in writing. There are also lonely, fearful moments. As you wait to see the response to your innermost secrets, thoughts, and feelings you just shared with the world to judge. It can heal you or destroy you. Thankfully, my followers and readers were thankful and understanding. Through most of this journey, I have gotten positive, uplifting feedback. That is what keeps you going. You have reason to continue to research the things you don't know about. Your reason to expand your mind and open yourself to understanding things and other situations that you may have judged before. It gives you a thirst for knowledge. I started reading all the time. I wanted to know what makes us behave the way we do. How to control our own emotions and thoughts, retrain our brains, and of course find happiness.

It didn't take me long to spread my wings and start writing for Medium. This platform and the other writers I connected with helped me to overcome my fear of judgment and write more freely about myself and my life experiences. My first fearlessly written story got published in CRY magazine. These two platforms, Medium and Quora, are well known. They are not just writing platforms for me. They are a place to go when I am sitting here alone in my head and need to let some of this stuff out. I can.Start writing and be comfortable doing it and unafraid. I like the thought of helping others and connecting with them. I have to give credit where it is due. If I had not found this outlet for my feelings, this way to sort through myself and acknowledge who I am. I don't know that I would be here today writing this. I never knew depression could be so powerful and hard to get off of you. It can be. It consumed m. I found a way through writing to get out the negative, to find a way to happiness for myself and others. Now, here I am, starting on Vocal and still on my journey. I am excited to be a part of it and every feeling that brings me closer to happiness.