Stories
Rachel
Rachel cried constantly. She thought it was normal—that everyone had the feelings of despair that lingered in her mind. She wrote poetry and kept a journal in middle school, writing in it every day. When she was a little older she started reading it back, reliving the sadness. “It was just really heartbreaking to read […]
Sarah
If they handed out Purple Hearts for wounds suffered on the battlefield of teenage mental illness, Sarah would have more than a few. Her childhood, she said, was pretty normal. But as a sophomore in high school she began to feel like a different person. She was “the funny, crazy girl” at summer camp with […]
Kimberly
While suffering from a chemical imbalance with schizophrenic and bi-polar symptoms, Kimberly felt everything was normal—it was the people around her who were acting strange. It wasn’t until she began to emerge from her illness that she became scared, realizing that what she saw as reality was false, and what she had deemed false was […]
Gordon
One small step from death, Gordon chose life. Standing on a stool, drunk, with a noose around his neck, something inside of him stilled his soul and he paused. Thirty minutes later he had removed the noose from his neck and survived. He would make the attempt two more times before emerging from his personal […]
Emily
The first time Emily forced herself to throw up, she locked herself in the bathroom and spent an hour sticking her hand down her throat trying to gag. She was fifteen years old. For a while throwing up felt really good, in her words, she felt “golden” but she became increasingly tired and moody, retreating […]
Grayson
By the time Grayson was in pre-school, parents were refusing to let their kids play with him. Aggressive and violent, he would fight, scream and in his words, “I didn’t want to get along with anybody and I didn’t want to be the normal kid and I didn’t want to do the normal things.” Kicked […]
Gracie
Gracie knew she was bi-polar when she was 11. That was when she discovered her father had the illness and she recognized herself in his behavior. But it wasn’t until three years later that she was officially diagnosed. “I’ve definitely felt different pretty much my whole life. I’ve had a lot of problems throughout […]