If your here
If you’ve found your way to this page, you’re not alone. Below are a few resources that supported me during different seasons of my mental health journey. I’m sharing them simply as someone with lived experience—there are many meaningful resources available, and these are just the ones I personally found helpful.
If you or someone you love is in immediate danger, please reach out to local emergency services or a suicide prevention hotline in your area.
My Story
For most of my life, I have lived in two worlds at once.
One is the world people see: degrees earned, careers built, responsibilities managed, goals achieved. The other is quieter, heavier, and far more difficult to explain—the internal world shaped by anxiety, depression, PTSD, ADHD, and survival.
My relationship with mental health began early. By the age of sixteen, I was already learning how to navigate a mind that felt louder, darker, and more demanding than it seemed for others. Over the years, I learned how to function while struggling, how to succeed while unraveling, and how to smile while silently fighting battles no one else could see.
I am a suicide survivor.
I have been hospitalized for mental health treatment.
I have lived through moments where hope felt unreachable and the idea of staying felt heavier than leaving.
One of those moments ended with my car leaving the road and entering a river after an 80-foot drop. I survived—but survival is not the same as healing. Healing is slower, quieter, and far less dramatic. It happens in therapy rooms, in uncomfortable conversations, in learning how to ask for help, and in choosing—sometimes daily—to stay.
What I’ve learned is this: mental illness does not discriminate. It does not care about education, career success, family structure, or how “put together” someone appears. It can exist alongside ambition, intelligence, humor, and strength. And often, the people who seem the most capable are the ones working the hardest just to stay afloat.
Through my experiences—both personal and professional—I’ve seen how deeply misunderstood mental health remains. I’ve seen how lack of awareness can create distance, fear, and judgment, even among those who genuinely want to help. And I’ve seen how powerful it can be when someone simply listens, learns, and responds with compassion.
Today, I am not “fixed.” I am human. I still manage my mental health daily through therapy, mindfulness, self-awareness, and support. I am stronger, more grounded, and deeply committed to turning lived experience into meaningful awareness.
I share my story not for sympathy, but for understanding. Not to shock, but to connect. And not to dwell in darkness, but to show that light can exist—even after the darkest moments.
If you are seeking a speaker who brings honesty, insight, and humanity to conversations around mental health, suicide awareness, and compassion-centered response, I welcome you to reach out. These conversations matter—and they save lives.
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