As I sit here on the eve of my 30th birthday, I can't help to think about my journey here. Today I would like to share with you two big things...one being very private and the other I hope, inspirational. But first, here's is a poem I wrote when I was 14 years old.
This is something I have always wanted to keep private and personal but today I come before you readers with an open heart, to tell you I suffer from depression. As the clock ticks to my 30th birthday, I can't help to reflect upon the wonderful things in my life and yet still ponder the bad, including my many attempts at suicide. I couldn't help to wonder why God let me live through them all.....until recently, I had a an idea why.......to help save others.
In 2007, it was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for 34,598 deaths.1 The overall rate was 11.3 suicide deaths per 100,000 people.1 An estimated 11 attempted suicides occur per every suicide death.
In 2007, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24.1 Of every 100,000 young people in each age group, the following number died by suicide:1
- Children ages 10 to 14 — 0.9 per 100,000
- Adolescents ages 15 to 19 — 6.9 per 100,000
- Young adults ages 20 to 24 — 12.7 per 100,000
Depression is not a weakness, nor is it something you can just exercise off (as I was once told by a friend). It is an illness that can kill you. Picture this:
"Your thrown into the sea of life without a life vest, you know how to swim, so your good. Then the storms of trails start crashing down on you....wave after wave. Suddenly, you feel like you just can't swim anymore. It's much to hard and your desperately tired.....so you give up and drown."
Most people are born with this life vest on but we who suffer from this deadly illness, were not. That is why I want to help teens and young adults who suffer from depression to stay afloat. It may not be a life vest, it could simply just be inflatable floaties....never the less, it gives them all a fighting chance.
So I pray, that you'll join me in building MyLifeVest.org. An organizing that I hope will get support groups in schools, a site where these teens and their parents can come to share their stories of survival, receive support, hope and information. I'm sure there are many other groups out there like this but this is something very close to my heart and I want to be a part of this cause.
Thank you for taking the time to read my very long and personal post. I hope it has inspired you in some way to help others. Please share this with others and help me save lives, one life vest at a time.
Till the next post, darlins!
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