User:Editor at Large/Explanation

I've been promising people this for how long now? Two weeks? I suppose I should get cracking, then.

My Absence

If you're reading this page it is probably because you either left me a message and I thanked you, or because I posted this on my talk page after removing the "get better" messages. I'm not writing this because I want sympathy or consolation. I merely feel that I owe you all an explanation for why I dissappeared and why there were certain links on my userpage, which frightened quite a few people.

Conjecture can be, and usually is, far worse than knowing the truth. In leaving without any concrete explanation I am afraid that I left the worst to be imagined by my friends and all concerned well-wishers, and I would like to clear up exactly (without fiddly specifics, of course) what happened.

What happened

To put it as simply as possible: on November 7th 2006 I was sexually harassed by an employee at my educational facility. Okay, that wasn't simple. Oh well :-P

I've suffered from depression for about six years, and this event brought back all the terrible memories of last year and my previous life. This sent me spiraling rapidly, and two days later I was unable to move. I stayed home, in bed, barely able to drag myself up to get food; this continued intermittently until the following week, when I went back on Tuesday (exactly one week later). I missed Wednesday once again, unable to get out of bed, but was slowly recovering mentally and felt much better.

Recovery

I was beginning to feel better by Saturday night, and managed to get up enough courage to log in and read my messages (albeit at midnight, and it took until 4 in the morning). I cried. I had no idea that so many people cared, and the knowledge that people were there for me and were supporting me was what, more or less, kicked me down the path to recovery and got me up in the morning. I can't say often enough how much it meant to me. I actually, to be entirely honest, can't put into words the way I felt; which is very odd for me!