#how help helps

[mental-health-advice]

Contribute to the "How Help Helps" Page!

How Help Helps Send in how seeking professional help has helped you.

We want to add to this page, so feel free to submit yours! 

-Jori 

[mental-health-advice]

For the how help helps page. I would not have survived my teens without meds. Even now, I need them everyday to feel normal. And I'm still struggling a little, but if I didn't have meds there's a very good chance I wouldn't be here.

Awesome!  I will add it right now!! Thank you so much! 

-Jori 

[mental-health-advice]

tw:sexual abuse, tw:suicide tw:depression I started going to counseling in 2009 to help me get over my childhood sexual abuse. I’ve made huge progress since then. When I first started going I couldn’t even talk about the abuse without crying and freezing up. I still struggle with it sometimes, like yesterday for example, but I have come a very long way. I quit going to counseling at the end of 2010 and I had become very depressed. I was bullied constantly at school and I also couldn’t stop blaming myself for the abuse. On March 10th 2011 I wrote my suicide letters, it was a Thursday and I was planning to end my life the next day. Instead my letters were found by the school counselor and I was admitted to the hospital where I spent the weekend in isolation and was then transferred to an inpatient care group. That week was both completely terrible for me and also exactly what I needed (it was terrible in the sense that isolation was so boring and gave me too much time to think about my problems). My family had no idea that I was depressed and quite honestly they still don’t believe it but that’s besides the point. Being in the hospital allowed me to get the help I needed, it removed me from the outside world and allowed me to focus on myself which is something I’ve always struggled with. I was diagnosed with chronic depression and was able to work through a lot of stuff as well as build a strong support system. I just passed 3 years from when I was in the hospital, every year since then has gotten insanely better. I truly believed that I would never be happy again but now I have far more good days than i do bad. I started going to counseling again in December because things have gotten a little bit more difficult in the last little while as I get close to graduating and face the stresses of going out into the real world. Just the fact that I was able to recognize that things were getting hard for me and I was able to seek help shows me how far I’ve come. Before I had to force myself to go to counseling, with the help of others.. I usually would walk past the door at least 5 times before I could even walk in, now I have no problem walking in and I’ve even helped my friends seek help. I think it is important to make sure you are comfortable with your counselor and that you feel like there’s a connection there, because I have had times where it was not like that and I don’t think it was beneficial to me. So if you are considering seeking help, which I strongly encourage, keep that in mind and if you don’t feel like you click or you don’t like your counselor/therapist don’t be afraid to ask for someone else. They shouldn’t have any problem with that, after all they are there to help YOU get better and they want to make it as easy as possible for you.

I love love love this! You are wonderful. I will add it to the page right now. 

-Jori