1. You have friends that will stay on the phone with you for eight hours. No V, our relationship isn’t telepathic, but thank you for calling when you did.
2. You have friends that will offer to pay and accompany you to a therapy session.
3. You have friends that won’t let you forget you matter even when you’re being an incredibly pessimistic piece of shit.
4. You can listen to Adele until your chest bottoms out.
5. You can try twerking to Rihanna until life finds its way back to your soul.
6. If you stay on the phone long enough, you’ll start to enjoy the conversation.
7. If you try several times, the hollowness in your chest can fill up with laughter: so much laughter, you have to hold your rib cage to keep it from cracking.
8. If you stare at a piece of stainless steel long enough, that urge to press it against your skin as hard as you can will dissipate.
9. Cowardice can be life-saving.
10. Blocking random dudes on twitter is incredibly cathartic.
11. You can ignore certain calls. What are they gonna do anyway?
12. It’s not your fault if you don’t feel safe around them. Don’t let them shame you for your boundaries.
13. You don’t even have to care about tomorrow.
14. Just keep typing.
15. Your heart is beating really fast, but hey, it’s still beating.
16. I don’t know, some people think you’re a genius. What?
17. Seriously though, five minutes of borderline disrespectful, you-guys-just-need-to-fuck-the-hell-off courage will save you so much anxiety. When are you gonna try it?
18. Memes babe, memes!
19. You’re in pain, you’re allowed to yell.
20. I guess you’re good. Haha. No, not mentally. But your craft matters. I need you to believe that.
21. It’ll pass. Or it won’t. But you’re a coward, so you’ll survive.
22. In the meantime, distractions?

I’m curating here for the week. Please stop by if you can.

Feature image by Stefano Pollio on Unsplash.