[Music]
foreign
[Music]
so we talked a little bit before the
call that the reason you're volunteering
with our cause is the reason is really
personally with you and you have dealt
with depression and anxiety since you
were a teenager
um do you want to just tell us a little
bit about you know what happened and how
do you feel about that
sure so
um you know mental illness has always
been a really big part of my life it's
something I've struggled with more than
half of my life and
um you know it's even when it's under
control you know it's always there
really and
um I think that you know the the fight
against mental illness and just bringing
awareness to it is really important
because you know it's it's not like a
an illness that other people can see
generally I mean sometimes there are
symptoms but a lot of times
um you know someone who is struggling is
not
showing those emotions outwardly you
know there is something they're
experiencing but you know they may
um
present like they're okay
um and so it's really something that
um is an important part of my life and
something that I'm really interested in
bringing more awareness to because there
is still not stigma
um and you know hopefully we can kind of
normalize these conversations and and
make people aware that they're not alone
yeah and so what are the symptoms that
made you realize that you needed help
yeah so when I was um when I was a
teenager I was just feeling you know I
felt like there was something wrong or
that there was something different
um about me compared to my friends you
know I was
tired all of the time
um I didn't have any motivation
um even you know to go out and spend
time with friends or anything like that
um and I just I it felt different
um than it had felt previous you know
just several years before that
um so when I was 14 or 15 I started
feeling just
um down a lot and depression is
something that's hard to describe and to
communicate to other people
um especially you know people who don't
experience that themselves but also it's
it's very different from person to
person so I would say just my symptoms
were
um just really struggling
um in day-to-day life and who who
decided that you needed help was it you
or your family or like who's took you do
like I mean what was the first thing
that you did did you go to a doctor a
friend a psychologist yeah so I um I
started out by going to my primary care
physician and
um you know just saying that I was tired
all the time and you know just didn't
have any motivation just you know all of
those things and
um that was when I started
antidepressants and you know over the
years out of all
um and I know that medication is not a
cure-all but because a lot of my
experience or a lot of my uh illness
comes from biology the medication was
really helpful for me combined with
therapy and you know seeking support
from my family and friends
um so yeah that's it that's how it
started I started um going to a primary
care physician when I was younger and
then eventually
um started seeing a psychiatrist and um
a therapist as well yeah no that's I'm
so glad that you're sharing your story
it'll help a lot of people you know
um and then how did you like break this
um you know since you said it is a
stigma around telling anybody that you
have a mental illness or a depression
how do you break it to your husband
and yeah what did you get from him
so um
I had
um I had been living in the Midwest for
about six years when
um my depression got really really
severe
um and it got to the point where I
couldn't work and I just really needed
to uh kind of start from scratch come
back home
um live with my parents for a little
while and kind of like use them as that
support system you know get them to help
me do laundry and cook and you know all
of the things that uh 20 something
should be able to do and yeah
yes while I was still on medication and
um it was soon after I moved back that I
met my husband and so he was really uh a
part of that from the the very early
stages of my kind of my recovery from
that really severe
um stage of depression
um and so he he was pretty much aware
from the beginning
um but it was very
nerve-wracking to kind of open up about
that and
um to let him see that part of me
um but you know I I think when you're
in love with someone or even the earlier
stages of that before you fall in love
with someone you know you have to kind
of
let them see who you are and so that's
what I decided that I needed to do
um but I it was it's very scary because
there is that stigma that exists around
it yeah yeah I can totally imagine what
you were going through that time right
you're dealing with your own depression
and your medication and you also talked
about like whether played a big part of
it also right when you were in the
midwest whether absolutely yeah so I'm
from the deep south and it typically the
winters here are not really severe we
may have a couple of cold and gloomy
days but for the most part it's pretty
mild and I had grown up with that and
that was the the winter I was used to
and you know I didn't always feel great
like in the winter I I definitely had
some seasonal affective disorder that I
was dealing with but
um when I moved up to the Midwest I
lived in Indiana for about four years
and then um Cleveland Ohio for were two
years and
the sun rarely ever shines and uh uh in
Northern Ohio so it was very very
difficult to deal with I mean it was a
big shift
um just you know lifestyle changes and
the colder it is outside and the more
difficult it is to to get around because
of the snow and everything the less you
want to leave your house
and
um the less you want to interact with
other people so you know that that kind
of took my depression to
uh an all-time low because I wasn't
seeing friends I had you know I had a
great group of friends there
um that you know really they treated me
like family and they helped me through a
lot of it but when I started withdrawing
um due to the weather it was
um really difficult and put me in a
really uh dark place
yeah no Laura thank you so much for
sharing your story I think with your
story
we can see that you know once you
realize you know you can speak up about
it find the right help you have the
support of the family and friends and
absolutely and you know there can be a
cure at the end of it thank you again
thank you
[Music]
