I was an adult volunteer today. I have struggled with anxiety and depression for years. Thank you for the work you are doing. This is a poem that helps me on rough days. “ For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others. The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combes her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen in her eyes because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows.”

While in the midst of returning to Wisconsin during my freshman year of high school, I suffered physical sexual and verbal abuse from my partner. It didn't make moving easy, and it caused a very big gap between my family and me. About 6 months after I moved, around their first couple of weeks of starting school here, I was admitted into local therapy. Thankfully I went into the experience with an open mind. Therapy was the first place I finally labeled what I was going through, as “abuse”. When the abuse finally stopped, it was through therapy I got the resources needed to take action against my partner. Of course, getting up on my feet was difficult. But it did heal the rift between my family and me. I am still seeing my therapist and I have walked out of that experience with PTSD, and I am still trying to continue to improve.

I suffered from an Eating Disorder. I would always look in the mirror and compare myself to others. I wanted to be skinnier, have abs, and have the body I see influencers have. Any time I looked in the mirror, I couldn’t look at myself. I felt ugly. I never wanted to show my body so I wore baggier clothing. I started to skip meals. As more days passed, I got used to not eating. I felt tired but started losing weight so I continued. Until one day, while running laps in gym class, I fainted. The teacher was not able to initially wake me, so they called the ambulance and took me to the hospital. My heart rate got so low, that I had to stay there for the next week being fed full meals. After I got out, I felt better and realized I wasn’t changing myself for myself but for others. I started seeing a counselor that week to talk through my feelings. I started feeling better loving my body for what it was and not changing myself. Today I am healthy and accept my body for what it is and you should too.

I was always there for others to provide them joy but throughout the years going through a traumatic divorce with my mom being an abusive alcoholic. I fell into self-doubt, depression, and anxiety. However, I looked at the stuff I enjoyed which was singing, dancing, and drawing. I have now been doing dance for eight years, singing loudly outside, and drawing with a passion, I have also learned to not be perfect and love myself as someone who has come out gender fluid. I have put myself back into therapy to cope with trauma and anxiety and I hope this inspires others that it is okay to get help.

 I met this girl. We started talking more and more each day and things started to get better slowly but surely. I became really close with her and I started to like her. I lied to myself saying I didn't because I knew she would leave the second she found out about me and my past. One night I was having a panic attack and I texted her and told her what was happening and she comforted me. She then started asking questions about me and it got to the point where I started telling her about me my past. She actually acted as if she cared.  I was falling in love with her. Then one day she was getting distant and the next day even more distant to the point we just stopped talking altogether. I found out from one of her friends that she was talking about me about how annoying I was and how she can't tolerate me. I knew it was going to happen one day. Ever since that day, I felt like I was betrayed, stabbed in the back. Because we promised, forever no matter what happens. I'm 15 and things are so hard. I have managed to fool everyone into thinking I'm okay and happy. I don't know how long I'm going to stay here for everyone who is reading this don't listen to anyone keep 1-2 real friends if you can find them if you can't then be alone fight alone do everything alone life is easier that way just stop caring still help people but don't get close. 

Sometimes I have to ask myself am I really enough for today's society. Most days from my peers and classmates I am told that I am worth nothing and I question what is the point of my life. Why does my life matter? The answer I always try to tell myself is that it's because I'm unique in my own ways and I bring something new to the table. But sometimes that doesn't matter, people look past that. My real mental health problem is I have social anxiety and I feel awkward and afraid to sometimes talk to other. I'm so scared they are going to judge me and make fun of me. The feeling of embarrassment while all the eyes in the room are on you when the room is in dead silence. To being the center of attention in the room when you didn´t want any attention drawn at all. For me, I just have to ignore these thoughts and people. My thoughts only matter. I shouldn't care how others think of me or want me to wear or how I´m supposed to be. I still have social anxiety obviously but it's more controlled in a way where I don´t let it take control of me anymore. I calm myself down and think about things that I know make me worth it in this world. There are always going to be people in the world who are jealous and envious of you. Just want to bring you down with them.

I've always struggled with mental health. From anxiety to depression. This went on for most of the high school where I thought and was told by others that I wasn’t good enough and I believed them until I met my boyfriend. My boyfriend helped me get through it. Making sure that I believed in myself and loved myself. He made me feel beautiful and was the one person who helped me out of my depression. He made me happy and did not want to think about taking my own life. I wanted to live for him because of the constant excitement, Our healthy relationship is what helped me even though I still have insecurities and anxiety I'm in a much better happy healthy state of mind.

I’ve been in a friendship with my best friend for a long time. We’ve been through arguments over and over again. We’ve ended up always getting through it. Recently since I’ve been talking to a boy I’ve been getting backlash from it. I then heard that her friends that I thought were also my friends went behind my back and told her not to be friends with me anymore. I’ve been in a state of mind these last 2 months where I’ve needed help from people. I’ve been struggling with school, work, and home life. With my best friend practically gone, I have no one by my side anymore. This is an unhealthy relationship and if she stopped trying then I stopped trying. Especially if people are two-faced and go behind your back. I’m going through it right now by myself. I’ve taken time to work on myself but to also find better and healthier people to be around. I’ve made a new friend and she’s been with me for a short amount of time but she easily replaces the spot.

I’ve been struggling with depression for the past five years. It’s wearing me down, causing me to have a lack of energy. I feel like nothing is exciting to me and there’s never anything to look forward to. I don’t have many friends because I isolate myself on a daily basis. There’s a tiny voice in the back of my head telling me to self-harm, but I will never do that because it won’t make my situation better. The voice never leaves me alone though, and it makes me hate myself. I don’t cope with depression well, but it’s good to share my story with people who are struggling with the same thing as well. I hope my story can open people's eyes, and show them they are not alone. I am still experiencing this.

I’ve had a toxic relationship with this girl who beat me in a game. We’ve never been friends then and she always teases me and never leaves me alone about it. Still going through it but I’ll be alright. Don’t worry

My boyfriend left me for my best friend. One night my boyfriend messaged me saying he couldn’t handle this. I understood since I can be much at times and it could be too much for him. He also said that he wasn’t fit for relationships and wanted to work on himself. A  couple of days later I noticed he was dating the girl he told me not to worry about as we were dating, and he said he didn’t like her and they were just friends. We broke up about a month ago and I'm still not over him. I think I’m still in love with him. I’m still going through it.

I have an unhealthy friendship with a friend who always brings me down and makes me feel bad about myself. I sometimes don’t want to be the bad guy and say something mean and bring it up and end up losing them but it has been affecting my mental health.  I’m still working to get through it. But I’ve tried to distance myself and start hanging out with some of my old friends and trying to stay positive.

I suffer from anxiety. I am a teenage student in high school. I would always be in class while the teacher would hand out the tests for us to take. What if I fail? I thought to myself I would have to retake the class next year or maybe my grade would drop and it could affect my college. My parents would be so disappointed in me. They were the parents that didn't really understand me. Who always had the highest standards set for me and the strictest rules. Having anxiety is definitely hard, especially living in a household like this. My brother is the ¨perfect¨child in our family and my parents always expected me to follow in his footsteps. Get good grades, be on varsity for a sport, have a paying job, and always make sure I hand everything in on time. I try my hardest to make my parents proud. Having friends in my classes is what made me have the motivation to come to school every day. I started to realize that I couldn't do it for anyone else but for myself. Instead of always worrying and having anxiety about what others around me thought, I started to care about how I wanted to live my life. I made goals and then I worried about the steps to get me there. What would make me happy? Well now I know my parents are proud of me now for the goals I ended up accomplishing even if it's not the path they wanted me to take. 

I have Bipolar Personality Disorder. I used to always be quick to change my moods and personality without realizing it. I didn’t have lots of friends because they didn’t want to deal with my anger or other issues. I started to do my own research and self-diagnosed myself with bps. I’ve been trying to make sure to watch my personality and try to fill myself with things making me happy and not feel so empty inside. Been trying to get friends who accept my personality disorder.

Anxiety in the classroom. I get anxious and always want to be seen as perfect by my peers. This has resulted in me having bad social anxiety. I’m happy to say things have improved tremendously. I did small things, which made such a huge change in my life.  Like just accepting my imperfect self.

During my class, my friend gets called offensive names based on her culture and it really hurts my feelings. I try to take her mind off of it because I know if it hurts my feelings it hurts hers also. This is a daily issue at school.

I have anxiety. I have always been a worrier. I never recognized the signs of my anxiety developing. My stressful ways developed into anxiety around a couple of years ago. I have never really had close friends. I rarely ate and I developed horrific social anxiety. I was unable to look people in the eye when speaking to them and struggled to keep a conversation going. I was quiet and shy. I’m happy to say things have improved tremendously. I did small things, which made such a huge change in my life. Examples of yoga and speaking to myself in a mirror. I understand my story may not be the worst but I know others can relate.

I struggle with mental health so much.  I’ve hurt myself, made myself throw up, and I don't see my body as beautiful. Sure, I'm pretty and so many people love me but when I look in the mirror that's not what I see. This is something I am still going through.

I’m currently a sophomore in high school, and I get bullied on a daily basis. I’m more of what you call the “nerdy kid” that reads books, aces every test, loves homework/school, and so on. I’m a non-athletic teenage boy that isn’t strong by any means. The same group of senior athletes come up to me every day and decide to shove me to the ground. My books fly out of my arms, and they proceed to stomp on them, rip up my notes and homework I worked hard on, and even steal my things. If they see me, they beat me up; I try to get away in a hurry but I just can’t. I’m getting afraid to go to school because it’s guaranteed I’ll get a bloody nose or black eye, get my things stolen, and so on. I still am going through this.

I have obsessive-compulsive disorder also known as OCD and people make fun of me because I have it and I'm still going through it.

At school I am getting bullied and called racial slurs like cracker, donkey, and that I'm a lazy monkey. I hope someone can help me with this and bring awareness.

I have been bullied basically all my life, and in seventh grade, I reached my point. I completely stopped eating and ended up losing over 50 pounds. 

I have always gotten made fun of for some words I use. I feel that I can use the words I wanna use and I shouldn’t be bullied for it. It’s the same girl who has blonde hair that makes fun of me all the time. I am still going through this and putting up with it.