Happiness is possible

I was doing my Sunday morning routine, reading PostSecret and drinking coffee. I'd gotten through looking at the actual postcards submitted and came across the following letter at the bottom of the page:

-----Email-----
I was at the PostSecret Event in London. I didn't find the courage to go up to the microphone, but if I had been able to, this is what I would have said.
I spent so long feeling guilty, feeling ashamed of my sadness, and you know what? It just made me sadder. You are allowed to be sad, you are allowed to be angry, you're allowed to be depressed. We all deserve to feel our own sadness in our own time.
Something you will have heard before - you deserve to be happy. That, of course, is not always easy to hear, especially in the depths of depression - so let me add something. You deserve to be happy - but you don't have to be happy right now or all the time.
It is okay to be sad, it's okay to not be ready to be happy yet. One day you will be ready to recover - that day doesn't have to be today or even tomorrow, as long as you know and trust me that it will come.
It's okay not to be okay.
Thanks for everything Frank,
Holly, London
P.S My secret is that I decided last night that I'm ready to recover and it's going to be incredible.

I can't tell you how touched I was, but I can tell you that I wish I would have read these words a long time ago. My eyes filled up with tears at the simple statement "you deserve to be happy." I, finally, can believe those words again, but there was a long time, a very long time, when I didn't or couldn't believe them. My sadness was all-encompassing but I was lucky enough to be surrounded by friends who always encouraged me to feel my feelings and that it was okay. They supported me and loved me even when I had nothing to give back. Not everyone is as lucky as I am though and too often people suffering from depression are made to feel like they need to "snap out of it" and just get happy. I wanted to share this letter today in the hopes that maybe someone else needs these words, either for themselves or to better understand someone in their life.