“Everything was going great there for a while, but then the depression took hold and choked the motivation out of me. I felt defeated, like a failure. I didn’t think I could ever reach my goal.”
So my last post detailed how I had gone on a spiral these last few weeks. I was having panic attacks two or three times a day. Panic attacks where I would stiffen and couldn’t breathe. I gasped for air and clenched my fist tight, digging my nails into my palms.
Things were getting bad and everything was slipping away. I had to start making changes to help get myself better. So, I went on hiatus a bit, disappearing effectively from social media and leaving my site in the rearview.
I had a goal when I first started this site to deliver three posts a week: One mental health, one book review, and one author interview. Everything was going great there for a while, but then the depression took hold and choked the motivation out of me. I felt defeated, like a failure. I didn’t think I could ever reach my goal.
After my medicine kicked in and things equalized in this bizarre mind of mine, I saw clearer. Then I realized, who reaches their goal on the first try? Maybe I can’t post three posts a week right now because, let’s face it, life is busy. But that’s okay. I can do one post a week. One mental health post a week to keep on helping people. I want to help people.
I had to get better before I could keep helping other people who were fighting similar battles to mine. I want to give people hope and help them see that everything will be okay. Especially in the moments when they feel alone, I want to help people realize they aren’t alone.
Every time I visit the darkness, I try to learn a lesson from the trip. Even though it’s a shitty thing to go through, I can always learn something from it. There has to be a reason we’re put through these trials and tribulations, right?
What I learned in the darkness this time was that they loved me. People I once feared were tired of me or trying to get rid of me were the ones I turned to for help. But the darkness can be scary when your entire world feels like it’s crashing.
I’ve been there. I’ve been there as recently as a month ago. But I survived. I came out the other side with my vision cleared. I feel better because I reached out to my support system, who guided me in the right direction when I got lost. They helped me come out of the darkness and I want to be there for everyone else when they get to that moment because it isn’t easy. It isn’t something we can do alone. We aren’t alone. None of us are.
Tyler Wittkofsky is a multi-genre author, blogger, award-winning marketing and communications professional, and fierce mental health advocate from the southern coast of North Carolina. Tyler has been writing short stories for as long as he can remember. Growing up the grandson of an English teacher, Tyler had a constant fuel to his creative fire in his grandmother.
He started writing poetry in 2012 to cope with his mental health struggles with anxiety, bipolar, and depression. Using poetry as an escape, he developed a unique style of poetry that has left readers saying, “Tyler’s voice is compassionate, even while suffering, and I felt the despair and loneliness seeping out through his words.” His first poetry collection, composed of poems written from 2012 to 2016, was published in March 2020.
He began his first novel in 2019. The novel, (Not) Alone, was a story based on true events surrounding the struggles of living with mental illness. Described by readers as “An Intimate Closure with Mental Illness,” this began Tyler’s revitalized passion for mental health. He decided that his writing would have a focus on mental health.
His next novel, The Seeds of Love: Sunflower Kisses Book One, was his debut romance novel and debut series. Described as “a great job of relaying the realistic emotions of young love and emotional drama that is particularly difficult for young adults…”, his debut romance novel was met with much success.
In 2021, Tyler began writing short stories. He was accepted into several anthologies in mid-2021, expected for publication in early 2022. He also writes supernatural horror and historical fantasy for the online magazines In the Pantheon and In the Crescent. He has work published through Five Minute Affairs as well.
He built his website www.TeaButWithCoffee.com in 2021. On this site, he started his blogging journey. He began writing book reviews, interviewing indie authors, and writing on mental health. This passion sparked a new desire to connect with more people. Tyler is currently in the beginning stages of two podcasts that he hopes to be live by the end of 2021.
Tyler currently lives in Leland, North Carolina with his wife, Grace, and dogs, Dutch and Belle.
You can find him and his works here: https://linktr.ee/wittkofsky
View more posts
Tyler Wittkofsky 