3 years ago I was in a pretty bad depression. COVID contributed to it but also some other things including family woes and a (then undiagnosed) health problem that caused me constant, chronic pain (I'm okay now!). it was a sunny spring day so I'd walk to this chip shop I liked back then (since closed down), and next to the chip shop was a OneStop that had this bike shelter kind of space. I'd sit in the corner eating my chips because I wanted to eat them while they were fresh. ig I looked depressed because right as I was finishing, two men approached me. the older one asked "yo, you alright?" and then the younger one he was with said "you homeless or something? because we've seen you sitting here several times. you ok?"
at first i wasn't sure if they were confronting me in a bad way. i was wearing my old hoodie and trainers because I just wasn't in the mood to make myself look good. they gestured me to come stand up and go round the corner. not going to lie, I'm a petite, skinny woman, so I thought "is this really a good idea to follow them?" but i did. when i got there they just started talking to me. I said I'm not homeless. they said I looked "down" and the younger one said "you can talk with us about it if you'd like, we ain't gonna judge ya" and the older one said he was a rapper who is a sponsor for mental health awareness and he talked about how he went through some bad times with his mental health as well.
i bit the bullet. I opened up to them, I talked with them for half an hour, couldn't stay longer because my mom would've gotten worried. i opened up to them because at the time it seemed like nobody was taking my medical issue and the stress it was causing me seriously. but they did and they told me to keep strong. at the end of the convo one of them said "we hang out here every other day so you can come speak to us again if you like". i'd walk up that chippy every other day to every week and i never actually saw either of them again after that tho.
sorry for the long post but that gesture went a long way. i actually felt better, i felt listened to and validated at a time where people weren't listening to me. i wasn't feeling suicidal or anything i just was in the type of depression where i'd only want to eat and sleep all the time and let the world continue on without me. my mom asked me why i took so long and i explained there were some good samaritans who were having a chat with me. ofc my mom freaked tf out about it lol
Depends on the site, for Lemmy it seems just a lil bit slower