Serving others as an antidote for depression, anxiety, fear of viruses, and the key to bounce back in 2020

2015 was a challenging year personally. After noticing, I was going down a downward spiral of depression after breaking a romantic relationship. My sister made me go to a psychiatrist for antidepressants.

I was officially sick of myself. I was tired of making excuses, feeling pity for myself, not being able to eat, or wake up from the bed.

Here I was in my bed having left a 6 figure job, with just the intro CodeAcademy completed. 2015 started as a challenging year. Depression and antidepressants messing up with my head.

When it rains, it pours

One of my best friends called me. There was something off in his voice. He was diagnosed with AIDS and Pancreatic cancer. I’ve feared AIDS since very young. I had an uncle, a prominent doctor pioneering in AIDS drugs in Spain, and got AIDS, he died young before the drugs we have now are available.

I feared AIDS; the viruses. He didn’t want to tell anyone. The worse came a few weeks after when he left. He wasn’t an acquaintance; he was one of my housemates back in the day; we used to talk for hours and dream how he would be the one to do my makeup and hair for my wedding day. We would dream out loud like kids. For someone leaving depression, having a sudden death of one of your best friends was the worst.

I needed a reset; I was already doing CBT therapy, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and nothing was helping anymore. Choosing travel as my therapy, I booked a flight to California. My old friend Pocket Sun, now a recognized investor, was in California. I stayed with her for a week and I loved empowering female founders and I quickly become an ambassador. Fast forward to now, I believe in her mission and I’m a limited partner at her investment fund SoGal.

Bounce back by serving others

When I came back and I knew my path had a tech startup. I taught myself to code and I taught girls to code and empowered them, turning my mess into my message. I didn’t want anyone to put their dreams on hold for not being technical. Before the end of the year, I secured help and funds from Top Universities.

Serving others was the only thing that would make me wake up from my bed. Many people said when I was helping so selflessly those girls at no cost to them. But to be honest, they were keeping me alive and all the volunteers that were rallying behind my dreams.

I’m not sharing this for you to be oh poor Angie has suffered so much. We all have a year like that in our lives, we all have stories like this. I share this because if we could do it once, we can bounce back this 2020. If you had depression, anxiety, fear of viruses, you are not alone. But I believe firmly that we can bounce back from anything, and here we go again.

We have 100 days till the end of this year. We can make it.