I have gone through a similar experience to yours. I too, know the pain and the joy of self-discovery. During that journey, I heard someone make an interesting statement about depression. He said that depression is really just the mind and body depressing feelings that are not tolerated by a person that has been trained not to tolerate those feelings.
The other point I wanted to make is that posts like this prove to me over and over again that cooperation is what makes mankind. Yes, we can be competitive, but I have some indirect evidence that competitiveness arises from abuse.
As a result of more than 2 decades of work on myself, I live a life of relative peace, even around difficult people. This is what I share on Steemit.
Write on.