36 Interviews With People Who've Been Helped By Reinventing Themselves

We have interviewed 36 people who have overcome struggles as a result of reinventing themselves. These stories show that zooming out and reinventing the way you lead your life is one of the most powerful ways to overcome struggles of mental health.

Most recent stories of people reinventing themselves

Want to share your story too?

👉 Help thousands of people around the world by sharing your own story. We would love to publish your interview and have a positive impact on the world together. Learn more here.

Are you looking for stories on people reinventing themselves?

I’ve interviewed 36 people who have been helped by reinventing themselves, and here are the top 5 struggles that these people have overcome:

  1. Depression (21 posts)
  2. Anxiety (16 posts)
  3. Childhood (10 posts)
  4. Suicidal (9 posts)
  5. Stress (8 posts)

In our many years of publishing helpful mental health content, we always received questions from our readers about specific situations. While we have a lot of helpful tips to share on how to be happier, we simply can’t offer advice for every situation.

That’s why I’ve set out to interview folks with every type of mental health struggle. My job as an interviewer is to categorize these interviews and present them in a way that is most helpful to our readers.

Read all the case studies

Elijah Meason Featured Image

How Accepting Help and Mindfulness Became the Turning Point in My Life

“Drugs and alcohol were common place and I was constantly moving around. That’s not to say that my parents were using in front of me, just that it was fairly obvious as to what was going on. Because of this, I actually grew up attending AA meetings and was introduced to “recovery” pretty early on. Even so, I would go on to spend 16 years in an alcohol and drug-induced nightmare that almost consumed my life. Irony at its finest.”

Sam Russell Featured Image

How Inner Dialogue and Spirituality Helped Me Overcome Depression & Suicidal Thoughts

“What therapists would label as “mental health” issues—as I’ve aged and grown perspective in my life, I would have to disagree wholeheartedly. Unstable environments and adults that failed to protect me from predators were the sole contributors to my unstable years.”

MaryAddison Yates Featured Image

How the 12-Step Program and Therapy Helped Me Deal With Addiction, Depression & ADHD

“I met my future husband when I was 26 but I never felt truly connected to him. I felt just as invisible to him as I did to everyone else. When we decided we wanted to have children, by some miracle, I was able to abstain from drinking just before and during my pregnancy. I coped by being very controlling, a shopaholic, and a workaholic. The twins were born when I was 31 and postpartum depression led me back to the only solution I thought I had: drinking”

Bayu Prihandito Featured Image

How I Stopped Being a People Pleaser & Embraced Myself to Walk My Own Path

“No one possesses the ultimate truth. The advice we receive from others is usually drawn from their personal experiences, but it doesn’t necessarily mean their truth will align with ours. This includes advice from our parents. Although they usually offer guidance out of love, their narratives are unique to them and should not automatically become our narratives. We must consciously create our own stories, otherwise we risk blindly following in others’ footsteps.”

Andrea Blindt Featured Image

Successfully Battling Depression and Tragedy Upon Tragedy to Find Happiness

“The pregnancy ended up being even more high risk than my prior ones and I was placed in the hospital for six weeks. Depression and anxiety returned as my young daughter bounced between family and friends during my absence. I missed her terribly and my body ached without her presence, but I pushed forward knowing that each day I stayed pregnant brought us one day closer to our baby.”

Alana Van Der Sluys Featured Image

My Story of Overcoming Binge Eating and Negative Body Image to Achieve True Health

“I couldn’t allow myself to be happy. Even at my lowest weight (which is considered “underweight”), I hated who I saw in the mirror. It was never enough and it would never be enough because my actual body wasn’t the problem. I would never feel worthy until I gave that feeling of worthiness to myself. I always felt I was never enough. I was always anxious and nervous about food.”

Jonathan Featured Image 2

My Journey From Alcoholism to 1 Year Into Sobriety and Better Mental Health

“Being sober or being ‘okay’ isn’t about becoming perfect. A lot of people expect to look better or earn more or fall in love and so on. Sure, it can happen – but those are not pillars to build yourself on, because they can fade. You need to do an inventory with yourself or a therapist, look into who you are that brings you such shame or guilt, and start confronting that.”

Thomas Featured Image 1

Achieving Happiness Despite Autism & OSDD With Self-Understanding and Meditation

“Now, we can identify our emotions easily, we don’t get attacks of emotion so overwhelming we just have to pause the world. We do have feelings that creep up and we do still have some things to work over, but also some of that is caused by the emotional dysregulation caused by our neurodivergence.”