Hello, I'm new to this subreddit so allow me to introduce myself.

My real life name is Solanus and I've been a brony for about six months now. I won't bore any of you with my story of bronydom unless you ask. Suffice to say, the show and, more so, the fandom have changed my life in ways I would have never thought possible. I owe more than I could vocalize to this fandom and I feel I have some ability to pay it back.

I'll be honest, I've never been a part of a support group before. I am only 18 but I know I am worth talking to if you need help. I am very intelligent and good at vocalizing feelings. I can also relate with a wide range of social and emotional problems that can cause people harm. I have, on multiple occasions, provided sound advise to people who are much older than I am. I have endured the following experiences and am able to give sound advise in relation to how I handled the situations.

I was intermittently raped by a close relative of mine over the course of several years. This was done when I was young. I can not determine exactly when as I blocked the occurrences from my mind for a long time. It was not until my early teen years that the memories came back in a flash and I told my family.

At the age of fourteen, I lost my mother to ovarian cancer. To say that I loved her would fall short in the modern vernacular. She was also my best friend. I stayed by her side for a grueling year of CHEMO therapy and watched her whither away to nothingness. I understand the raking pain that a close death can cause.

I spent my high school years hundreds of miles away from home at a Catholic Boarding School. The school was all male and I was faced with several years of moral struggle over my ever more apparent bisexuality. For four years, I endured having crushes on men who could never return the favor. I have also had to endure some of the judgement of my conservative-catholic family.

As a result of these and several other unmentioned circumstances, I spent close to two years in a suicidal depression that almost cost me my life more than once. I can relate to endless feelings of sadness and the almost unbearable ache of hating life.

Now, I am unbelievably happy to say I have never been in a better place with myself or the people around me in my entire life. There have been many different factors that have contributed to this and the fandom has not been the least among them. Even with all that I have just related in my past and present, I greet each day with a smile and almost no degree of pessimism.

It is thus that I extend my hand to any who here feel they need one. I am willing and flexible be you man or woman, young or old, you have my ear. I have irregular hours and university to attend to but, honestly, these would fall second in my mind if I knew I could help any of you.