How to have peace with myself?

[houmousandcarrotsandwich]

ok, so I can now pin point a few of depression triggers. I won't bore you all with the long story of my depression & it's past episodes.

This time I have really explored my life, and can see a few links. These include my family & how they treat me & being bullied as a child.

I have heard of people writing letters to past bullies ( never sending them), to try & put the issues to bed. Has anyone done this & has it worked?

Now, my family is another issue. I wish I could tell them how they make me feel, but it would only make matters worse. Things have happens in the past, which I don't think they would believe has happend & I would be left out even more as a result of exposing. I can't cut them out of my life, as I couldn't live with the guilt of not letting DS know his family. Any ideas on how to process this would be great.

Writing this has me flooding in tears, because I hate this & will do anything to make it stop.

[Chocattack]

Hi your thread title caught my eye because I too would love to hear some answers to your question . The only thing I can think of is "acceptance of self".

Regarding writing letters, a past counsellor recommended writing one (not sent) which I did. She asked me if I wanted to read it to her the following session, and when I did we talked about it. I have to say it really did help me. I wouldn't say 100% because if I'm feeling particularly low the feelings sometimes still come back but definitely not as bad as before. I didn't have anything to lose by doing the exercise so was happy to try it.

Have you had counselling? That helped me be more accepting of myself as a person.

[midnightservant]

I have done the letter writing thing and found it did help. You can do a ritual like setting fire to it or thowing it in a river and that can help too.