People who live with mental health disorders and addiction understand desperation that is quiet and lonely. This quiet desperation is a longing to be well. It is a desperation for love and belonging. It is a desperation to be at ease within ones self. Quiet desperation is a part of living with a concurrent disorder, and it occurs when our troubles flow like waters through a crumbling damn. We have to reach out for help. Alone, at this time, is no place to be. Here is the upside of quiet desperation. When we reach out and get help to help ourselves we quietly begin to become healthy. Perhaps a doctor, a social worker, an addiction counsellor, a family member, a friend, a clergy member, or someone from a 12 step program can give us the help we need. For myself, I needed to be hospitalized, medicated, and I had to reach out to some of the other people mentioned above. It took time but this quiet desperation became a loud cry for help, and then it became the gift of desperation. I don’t have it all together. No one does. My life is humble, modest, and it has its adversities. I do reach out and in my own way I freely give back.
