A Viral Tweet About Depression Is Giving People Hope

When you're going through depression, it's not uncommon to reach a point where you can't remember a time before the depths of your mental illness, and you can't imagine seeing a finish line, or a point when you'll come out on the other side.

But as writer Craig Stone so succinctly put it in one tweet, you will — and it'll be worth it.

On Sunday, Stone tweeted a photo of his son on Blackfriars Bridge in London, explaining that things weren't always so rosy in his life.

Stone wrote that eight years ago, he had sat on the bench in the photo and contemplated ending his life. The message that he had for anyone going through depression was that the next day might be just as difficult as the one you're having now. But the chance that it might be amazing is worth hanging in there for.

"Tomorrow might be the same. But it might also be brighter," he wrote. "It might even bring unimaginable brilliance. Hang in there. Love is always coming."

Since Stone tweeted the photo on Sunday, it has resonated deeply with people on Twitter, garnering more than 3,000 retweets and more than 11,000 likes at the time of writing.

"I'm in a pretty dark place at the moment but it's just that hope that you never know what tomorrow can bring that keeps me going," another Twitter user replied to the photo.

"This tweet is much appreciated as I’ve suffered with depression/anxiety and had dark days where everything is an effort but lightness always follows darkness so yes always hang in there even if just by a teeny weeny thread," someone else wrote. "Your son is proof of the light that follows."

Stone tells Refinery29 that it's been emotional to receive so much feedback to his post, especially from people who have reached out to him about their own suicidal thoughts.

"One person sent me a DM to say she was thinking of calling a cab to take her to a bridge when she read my tweet and didn't," he says. "That's just, well... It's made me realise that holding back how we feel can leave others feeling alone when they are not. They say it takes a village to raise a child, well — we are still children, and this world is our village. Nobody is alone."