"thank you Niantic..."

#PokemonGO: March 15th 2010: this was the day I shut myself away from the world. My gf had just left me, I just lost my job and I lost the will to go on. I became depressed, started suffering from severe paranoia along with many other mental health issues. My life would consist of get up, do housework, watch TV, play games and work from home fixing people's PCs remotely. I had no friends and my family decided if I didn't want to come outside they wouldn't come over. I had no life outside the four walls of my tiny 2 bedroom house, I was miserable, I was ill and I couldn't get as much help as I needed as I couldn't leave my home.July 15th 2016: this is the day I downloaded Pokemon go, hoping I could play causally in my home. I couldn't. For the first time in 5 years I rang my brother to see if he wanted to come over and play, he said you have to go outside to play so there was no point. I persuaded him to come over for an hour and I'd use a lure I had on the pokestop right outside my house. After the 30mins of the lure, I'd got my charmander from the start, caught a pidgey, ratatta and a few Oddish. I wanted more. 3 days later I decided I wanted to go and try to catch more pokemon. I called my brother again and he said the same thing. This time I told him I wanted to go outside but was to scared to go alone, I needed the support to go. He came over and we went outside. For the first time in 6 years I was outside my home. I panicked after about half hour but I'd done it. I'd made it outside. Now nearly a month later, every Wednesday me and my brother are going out for longer and longer walks. I'm seeing the most beautiful places and catching Pokemon just liked I'd dreamed of since I was a 10 year old.I owe all this to niantic for making Pokemon go. Without this game I would still be house bound, scared of the outside and thinking every knock on the door was something bad. I'm still not better. I'm far from it. But I'm finally getting the full help I need. I'm finally getting out and making friends again. All because of Pokemon go. Yes the games buggy as hell. Yes the tracker doesn't work. And yes there are still many many improvements to be made, but it still managed to possibly save my life and reconnect me with my family.So for this, Niantic, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.Edit: thank you to everyone who's replied and thumbs upped. I genuinely wasn't expect such a response. And everyone who has shared their story on here as well, I'm glad I could inspire you to do so. Evey one who let a nice comments get a big thumbs up from me for being genuinely nice people. Thank you all again :) via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2aEPnwD