Not about child abuse, but

Not about child abuse, but an interesting read from Robert Scoble about how the internet is helping him through hard times. Mostly I wanted to share my email to Robert earlier today:

Robert,

I just read your blog entry from last night and wanted to drop you a line. Not to offer condolances or anything like that, it doesn’t sound like you really need them, but to share a bit of my own history with you. Something we sort of, in an odd way, have in common.

1997 was the year that I first really started to get into the WWW and HTML, and all that it offered. It was also year 4 of therapy and year 3 of anti-depressants, all stemming from manic depression and an abusive childhood. It was the year my divorce became final, the year I spent 9 days in a hospital hundreds of miles from home, and 3 months basically in bed once I got home because of a virus, and a year in which all but the last 2 weeks saw me unemployed. Like you, I was needing to reach out to people, and find something to belong to.

But it turned out to be the last year of therapy and medication, and the internet played no small role in that.

1997 was the year I discovered that I was not alone. That there were other people out there who were dealing with their own abusive histories. I discovered that I could reach out to those people, and share myself with them, and that they knew and understood what I was dealing with. It was the year I started my own website, to share my story and help others who were dealing with abuse and depression. It still exists at http://www.geocities.com/mikemac29 and it still touches people, which is truly the greatest reward there is for publishing to the web, at least in my opinion.

So I guess, really, I wanted to write and say thank you. Thanks for reminding me why I do all this writing and publishing online. Keep the faith!