In my last letter, I told you how my different-ness draws out people's kindness. . . . Research shows that doing a kindness for someone else boosts a person's endorphins, the body's natural antidepressants. Your different-ness will make people want to help you, too, and helping you will help them feel good.
But I think our vulnerability can open hearts — our own and others' — even more powerfully than that. An exchange based on genuine caring can affect both people at the very deepest level. If that were not so, I'm not sure I would be alive today.
— Daniel Gottlieb, Letters to Sam