Introductions

"So you're standing on a ledge,
It looks like you might fall so far down,
Or maybe you were thinking about jumping.
Now you could have it all,
If you learned a little patience.
For though I cannot fly,
I'm not content to crawl."

I am a psychology student. That alone should be plenty of information. =P

No, in all seriousness, you may consider me to be a voice of unadulterated optomism in an increasingly chaotic world. People are fighting, and fighting hard, but so many of them are losing - not just the losing the battle, but losing themselves. I'm here to put a stop to it, or at least try to slow it down. Call me a hopeless idealist, but even if It can't be stopped (and, sadly, I really don't think It can), I firmly believe It's effects on us can be stopped.

That's right, I called him an It. That's the first step: objectify It. Make It into something beneath you, something that can't touch you unless you give It permission. The physical danger is real, very real, but the mental danger doesn't have to be.

Step two: Internalize it (and by this "it", I mean your situation). Take everything that happens around you and put yourself at the center. With this frame of mind, it becomes much easier to remember that you and you alone are in control of your own actions. No one, not It, It's minions, or even those you love, can force you to do anything you don't choose to do. Remember: nothing is being done to you, and all actions are created by you. If you choose, you can beat this thing. It will be difficult, but never impossible. Remember that.

Step three: Don't worry. Your greatest enemy is not without, but within. It works by making It's victims destroy themselves before It finally moves in. I don't know why this is, but it's very likely It simply finds it amusing. Don't give It a show, don't doubt yourself, and don't give in.

Every day you are still alive is a day that you win and It loses. Repeat this to yourself as often as it takes.

As long as you are alive, you still have a chance.

As long as you are sane, you can still win.