Please help me share this part of my book with anyone who may need it:
I wanted to share this part of my new book with everyone, at no cost, so that it might reach more people. I realize some of you just aren’t into reading and some of you purchased my novel just to support my writing and you may never actually read it, but this is something I wanted everyone to have a chance to read, regardless of whether you read Diminishing Return or not.
This is the Afterword of the novel and will in no way spoil the plot. If you have ever been affected in any way by suicide or depression (I think I can safely assume that will be a large percentage of us), please share this as you see fit. It may not help anyone and I’m certain people will have negative thoughts regarding it, but who knows, maybe it will be worth the effort. At any rate, I certainly don’t think it can hurt. Thank you for helping get this post to as many people as possible.
Diminishing Return
“AFTERWORD”
If you open your door, look out into this often heartbreaking world, and you cannot find hope or purpose, first, especially if no one else has, let me tell you that I am sorry. You have the basic human right to have some sort of happiness and satisfaction in your life and for any and every reason that you feel as though this right has been taken from you, I apologize. You are not wrong or overreacting or overly dramatic. This world is crushing and seems to be even more so every day. I do not believe that anyone with any depth of emotion or intelligence is blind to how desperate this existence has become. We all feel some amount of this even if we pretend to you that we do not.
Second, and please truly open yourself to hearing this, we all need a certain amount of help to find any hope or purpose here. Some of us are blessed by dumb luck and have someone or something that has helped us to clear a path leading straight to the realizations and understandings which satisfy our absolute need for happiness and satisfaction. Even though those of us who walk that path may never know the pain you carry, do not feel separate. The greater majority of those people who you feel could never understand you; they care more for you than you may be able to comprehend. I assure you there are far more people who do know pain, hopelessness, and purposelessness.
While no one could ever truly know exactly what it is that you are going through, many of those people have spent their lives hoping to have an opportunity to help you find your hope and your purpose because that is where they find theirs. Let them help you, give them purpose, allow them to help you find yours and maybe one day you can be so full of hope that you can no longer understand what it is to feel hopeless.
No one is safe from losing themselves; this is a commonality that connects us all.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with depression, talk to someone that wants to and knows how to help.
Here are just a few of those people:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
National Youth Crisis Hotline: 1-800-448-4663
National Hopeline Network: 1-800-784-2433
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 1-800-662-4357
Crisis Text Line: Text “HOME” to 741741
If you just want to write about it and get it out of your head, email me or contact me through my social media pages.
josephdnewcomer@gmail.com
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Joseph D. Newcomer 