Complete 180

As a young kid, I was picked on pretty mercilessly by my peers, about anything from my short hair to my crooked teeth.

I would purposefully make myself sick so I could go home. Also I skipped fifth grade and I was thrust into a group of strangers I had not grown up with. Being much younger—I was 10 years old in sixth grade, 4’11”, and much heavier than a girl my height should have been.

I took it all in stride, but my struggle with depression began in seventh grade. Feeling left out from everyone else. I was called names. But junior high isn’t really a good time for anyone, so I still tried to keep my head up.

Things got worse when I started high school.

All of a sudden, my entire world turned upside down. I lost my ambition, I lost my motivation to even try in anything I did. Started self-harming to cope with how I was feeling, and it only got worse as I got older. My performance in school declined, while my self-harm addiction reached its peak.

Close friends tried to intervene, but didn’t know how to help. My entire world seemed to be falling apart before my eyes.

The summer going into my junior year, everything came to a screeching halt. My family intervened and I immediately was sent to therapy. It helped, but I still was just sad, digging myself deeper and deeper into a rut. I was diagnosed as bipolar type II in November 2012, and I’ve been medicated since then.

My life has done a complete 180. I’m so happy now, I have so much hope for my future. I graduate in May 2014 and I absolutely love my life. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.

– Grace

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