What a difference 10 years can make.....

My ex who I dated 10 years ago (I’ll call him J) sent me a few pictures from the first few days we were dating. Before I met him I had just gotten out of an abusive relationship (I’ll call him G). In that relationship I was emotionally and physically abused, G would come home and wake me up high and drunk to argue with me. His cocaine addiction was so bad that I told him one night he had 6 months to clean up. Well he didn’t remember that and when I broke up with him he flipped. He was threatening to kill me and he let EVERYONE know it. If I saw him out he would throw glasses at me from the bar. Once time he and 2 friends even corned me. Thank god J happened to be there. I knew I had mental health issues and was on some medication but I wasn’t properly diagnosed bipolar until 2 years ago. I was thrown out of the apartment, all my stuff and cats there. I had no money since he had stolen a lot of it for drugs. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was having a mental breakdown and thoughts of suicide again. I saw no way through it and went to New York’s Bellvue Hospital. For those that don’t know it, its not a good place to be put in a psych ward. I had no insurance at the time, no way to pay…..I started the process and right before they were going to grab me I ran out. J met me a few days after that and we happened to be walking by it and he took a picture of me. He told me that he was doing it so down the road I could look back and see how much my life had changed. J is an amazing person and we’re still friends. Now I am in the healthiest relationship I’ve ever been in and he’s my soulmate. Other than the fact I’m looking for work, my life is pretty perfect. Yeah things are happening, I’m losing people to cancer and suicide but I think I’m handling them like a champ. Being properly medicated has changed everything. I understand my life up until now and am grateful for everyone that helped get me to this point. Sorry if I’m rambling but I just thought that I would share in case someone in this group is going through something similar. The picture brought up a lot but I’m glad it did. I’m pretty proud that I went from a low paying job to being an HR Director where I can afford to live. You can do it too! If anyone reading this wants to talk, please connect with me. I love listening and helping however I can.