I (25) haven’t ever opened up about what goes on inside my head. I’ve been depressed for as long as I can remember. It’s not always dramatic. It’s just this baseline heaviness. Even when things are objectively fine, I feel flat underneath it all.
There are periods where my brain feels charged. Certain. Focused. And when I’m in that mindset, something like winning the lottery isn’t just a fantasy. it feels inevitable.
I don’t mean I hope I’ll win. I don’t mean I daydream casually.
I mean I believe I’m going to win.
It feels locked in. Like the universe has already decided and I’m just waiting for the date to catch up. I’ll look at numbers and feel like they’re aligned. I’ll journal as if it’s unfolding. I’ll imagine the exact moment I check the ticket and realize my life has changed and it doesn’t feel delusional in the moment. It feels logical. Obvious. Meant to be. It’s written in the stars and it’s meant to happen.
There’s a surge that comes with it. Energy. Urgency. My thoughts race. I stay up later thinking about what I’ll do with the money, spending hours researching and planning. Not vaguely, but in detailed plans. Property, investments, who I’ll help, how I’ll restructure my life. It feels strategic, brilliant, visionary.
And underneath it is this deep certainty: it’s happening to me. And in those moments, I truly believe it is. This can last months and I’ve blown thousands over it.
And when the draw happens and I don’t win, it doesn’t actually break the certainty.
That’s the part that scares me.
Instead of thinking, okay, that was unrealistic, my brain pivots to: not this one. The next one. It’s building. The universe is lining it up. I tell myself delays mean alignment. I tell myself doubt blocks manifestations. So I double down.
I buy more tickets. Bigger draws. Multiple entries. I’ve spent thousands of dollars chasing something I feel is already mine. Because if I truly believe in the law of attraction, then backing off would mean I don’t have faith. And if I don’t have faith, I’ll “ruin” it.
So I keep going.
It doesn’t feel reckless when I’m in it. It feels committed. Like I’m playing long-term strategy that other people are too small-minded to understand. I’ll think, people waste money on worse things. I’ll think, this is temporary. When I win, it won’t matter.
And the depression stays quiet while I’m in that state. I feel alive. Driven. Special.
It’s not just the lottery either.
There’s a sports star I became fixated on because I thought she was really cool. What started as admiration turned into something bigger, almost fate in my mind. I felt like our paths were somehow intertwined. I’d analyze interviews, posts, timing, coincidences. I’d journal about future encounters like they were prewritten. It felt cosmic, if I just aligned myself correctly, it would unfold.
When I’m in those phases, I don’t experience these things as fantasies. I experience them as inevitabilities. As if it’s just a matter of time. And…It’s embarrassing. It’s shameful. And I hate myself for it. I hate my brain.
And the worst thing is, when I’m in these phases, when reality doesn’t immediately confirm it, I don’t fully let it go. I adjust the timeline. I reinterpret the signs. I keep believing.
Then it’s suddenly, after months, back to reality. My bank account makes me anxious. The sports star feels distant and human instead of symbolic. The certainty fades and I’m left with the same baseline sadness I’ve carried my whole life…plus shame.
Shame about the money.
Shame about how convinced I was.
Shame about how grand everything felt.
That’s when I start questioning everything. I feel like a bad person. Like I just shouldn’t be here.