I’ve faced a lot of hardships in my life, of all shapes and sizes; I’ve lost people I loved, I’ve been forced into situations that I didn’t want or know how to be in, and I’ve made decisions that felt like the end of the world. But the thing is that they weren’t the end of the world. It might not have been easy, but I got through it and I survived. And then it was over and I could begin to process what I had been through. However, the one thing that I struggled to process, possibly because it is never-ending, is my ill-health. My entire life has been an endless battle of new illnesses, medications and hospital visits. I have lost friends and the future that I spent my childhood planning for myself. I lost my hobbies and my education and, worse than all that, I lost myself. And when my future seemed hopeless and my life seemed useless, I gave up trying. I resigned myself to an empty existence and retreated into my mind, which became a dark and dangerous place. But then some...