"The pressure I placed on myself only compounded my emotions. I was afraid to tell other people outwardly. I dropped hints to people in hopes someone would just ask because the humiliation of opening up felt too heavy a burden."
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Depression
Helped by:
Reinventing yourself
"At my darkest point, I attempted to take my own life. When I went to commit the act, I heard an audible voice say, “If you do this you will kill your mom of a broken heart.” It was as if a lightning bolt stuck through my entire body and jolted me out of a longtime trance."
Struggled with:
Depression
Divorce
Helped by:
Religion
"Being a drug dealer and thinking I would be dead in a matter of months from my infectious diseases caused me to become really sloppy. This led to a S.W.A.T. raid on my apartment which led to me becoming homeless. Everyone around me thought it was only the drugs that impacted me."
Struggled with:
Addiction
Depression
Hate
Homelessnesss
"As a result of my struggle with loneliness, I began to self-isolate. I felt hopeless and felt like interactions were a chore. Everything was an endless loop of routine and I could not wait for each day to end."
Struggled with:
Depression
Loneliness
Helped by:
Volunteering
"Because I wasn’t using solid evidence to understand my situation; I was just using my own thoughts and feelings, which were terribly limited. I mean, one person cannot possibly know all there is to know in order to make sense of themselves or the world. Life is simply too complex for that."
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Depression
Suicidal
Helped by:
Reinventing yourself
Self-care
"I was embarrassed by my feelings and didn't want anyone to know how much pain I was in, so I often put on a brave face. Even on my worst days, I tried to make it look like everything was okay when I felt anything but deep down."
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Depression
"I was on a very high antipsychotic dose and the side effects made me miserable. I made a plan to end my life but before anything happened my mom noticed my deepening depression. She helped me get treatment for depression and, just as important, both she and my brother spent time with me, offering constant reassurance that there was light at the end of the tunnel."
Struggled with:
Depression
Psychosis
Helped by:
Exercise
Medication
"I felt broken. I had suicidal ideation because I sometimes could not see a way out of it. A wise person told me my children would be much worse off if their mother killed herself. That stopped me in my tracks."
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Depression
Divorce
Miscarriage
Suicidal
Helped by:
Medication
Self-care
Therapy
"After a lengthy battle with cancer, my journey was made even more difficult by the added stress of acid reflux and esophageal achalasia. Three months went by in which I had to struggle through each day just to keep down any food that entered my system at all."
Struggled with:
Anxiety
Cancer
Depression