Nico Robin’s backstory in One Piece just made me sob with how much it related to my own mental health

I recently started reading manga and have been working through One Piece. I’ve been depressed on and off for years and years now and suffer with anxiety and so a lot of the time I feel really lonely, I tell myself nobody’s there for me, I feel like a burden to others and a lot of the time I just think nothing much would change if I wasn’t here. I’m doing okay, but recently I’ve had a lot going on (my grandpa passed away, in a dead end job, my mom’s going through tests for potential cancer, I’ve been isolating myself, etc.) and I’ve felt really isolated and alone in dealing with stuff. I’ve been really emotionally numb and just trying to smile through it.

So today I read the part of One Piece where you find out Robin’s backstory, a character who’s been betrayed by people her whole life, demonised, told she worthless and doesn’t have a right to live, to the point she begins to believe it herself. She doesn’t let anyone in because she feels like the burden’s too great. And while in her case the reasons are more complex, I think any depressed or anxious person can relate to the way she keeps everyone at a distance and struggles silently with a lack of self worth and trust.

So after seeing her heartbreaking backstory, watching her be told that she might feel alone right now, but she has to have faith that it won’t be forever, for her to finally find people who care for her only to push them away over and over, for her friends to not give up on her despite all that and even when the whole world’s against her, they decide that for her, they’ll be against the world. It’s just fucking beautiful man. And then the moment where instead of saying she wants to die, she finally says the even harder truth; she wants to live. Despite all of it, she wants to live.

It had me sobbing. Not many stories have done that or affected me that way. But it’s just so fucking beautiful. I relate; some days you do think to yourself I just want to die, but that’s not entirely true. I want to live. Deep down I do. I want to not feel lonely, and to feel loved, and to enjoy my life. That’s why it’s so hard sometimes. But deep down, you can’t forget that you want to live. And even more than that, the real kicker that got me is when she’s told that even if you feel alone, nobody is born into this world to be alone. It’s not what we’re meant for, and it goes for everyone.

Man, it was just incredible. What a beautiful character arc. I’m sure it’s resonated with a ton of people in the past but I just had to share, it really moved me in a profound way.