What does it feel like to come out of depression?

Like you just dug your way through the earth and came out in to China.

It’s like one day you were walking and then suddenly you fall down a hole you didn’t see. First you try to climb out the way you came but the way is too steep and slippery. So then you realize there is only one way to go, deeper down into the abyss. You begin digging your way deeper, you keep digging until you’ve gone so far down that you can’t see the way you came in anymore. The darkness surrounds you and the damp earth covers you, you feel so tired from all the digging that you rest and don’t feel like getting up again. You think to yourself ‘what’s the point? Digging is too hard and I’m too far down to go back the way I came.’ You think of just resting and not getting back up. But something makes you keep digging; hope and old memories become your strength, your spade. Sometimes you get lucky and find help, maybe in the form of an underground river which you can float on to take you some of the way, maybe in the form of a slippery slide, maybe in the form of animals or gnomes or dwarves or other underground dwellers. In the end you keep digging with or without help. You get dirty and hot and sweaty, you hurt your hands, your face, your legs, but you keep digging. Until finally you dig out one more scoop of dirt and you’re through.  You’re tired, you’re dirty you’re hurt and sore all over, but you’re through. You look around, and everything is new and everything is different. It’s not the same as where you originally came from but it’s better than where you were a few moments ago.

Welcome to China.