Ex-suicidal people of reddit, what saved you? And what keeps you going now?

i typed up a long tl;dr about my life experience, but i'm not sure about posting it.

the gist is, my father had always convinced me that i was a burden to him my entire life. like i was a mistake or unplanned, or whatever. whatever life problems he had, they were obviously my fault. i never really paid any attention to them because it was his fault i existed, but we once got into a fight, and he convinced me that i was eventually going to become a burden to everyone else i knew. my friends, my mother, and everyone else. i was convinced that the world was going to be a better place without me in it, and that's why i decided to try to take my own life.

luckily, i wasn't successful, and since then, i've built a lot of self-confidence and know that i'm only a burden to people who i don't want around me anyway. i have a great support network, and i'm far away from my family. this part is going to sound strange (given recent events), but i once read a book by bill cosby about confidence building, and he explained that self confidence is something any and everyone can have. before reading that book, i was convinced it was only something 'popular,' 'beautiful,' etc. people had. i am now a relatively accomplished person. two years ago i moved to NZ with my SO of 5 years this Feb, i have just recently finished my MA in applied linguistics from the university of auckland. i am now tutoring a refugee from afghanistan on elementary english, and i have a relatively nice circle of friends with me here in auckland. my life is great, and so much different from that person i was back then.

to anyone at a point where you're considering taking your own life, things can get better. i promise you. you just have to believe that they can.

that was still a bit of a tl;dr (sorry about that). i thank anyone getting this far, and i hope my story helps at least one person out there.

/r/AskReddit Thread