She later told Alex that she would continue to seek help from mental health professionals…
“Dear Alex,
Hey there, I wanted to drop by and to let you know about how your organization has helped me out through a rough patch.
One of my teachers at school today had found out about your organization and had us watch a Ted Talk of yours, and we all make our own “Because I said I would” promise cards. Mine is significant to me, because mine is a stand against something I’ve been struggling with for years.
I have a mental disorder. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I have hallucinations and hear things, and its gotten worse to the point where I can’t sleep because of the night terrors I get at night. They said I had a mood disorder, but it didn’t make sense to me. I started to do research and I believe I have something along the lines of either DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) or Schizophrenia. I feel like a freak because of what I have. It’s caused me to hate myself and I’ve turned on my friends and on myself in an effort to try to block it all off. I’ve even go so far as to cutting because of the depression I feel of being a freak in my eyes and being alone without my friends because I abandoned them. When I saw your talk, when I heard of your organization, I decided that enough was enough. I wanted to be normal, I wanted to be accepted, so I decided that I would make a promise card that I would carry with me everywhere and would hold in my heart, a goal to pull myself out of this hole I’ve dug myself into. I don’t know if you’ll ever read this, but if you do, I want to let you know that I believe in myself, that I believe I can do this. I am _________, and I’ll stop hurting myself and others, I’ll help instead, because I said I would.”
Your story is truly inspiring. I wish you all the help and strength you may need throughout the journey you have ahead of you. NEVER EVER forget that YOU ARE NEVER ALONE in this world. However lonely, depressed, or angry you may feel, there are HUNDREDS, even THOUSANDS, of resources to use or people to talk to to help you through it. Everyone is flawed in one way or another. Flaws do not define us; they are a attribute in which we use to understand who we truly are, and a means to figure out what we can do to help ourselves and others.
As a complete stranger, I am proud of you. It takes a lot of courage to do what you’ve done and to will the changes you deem necessary in your life. Congratulations on a new beginning. You remind me of a Phoenix – a mythical bird of GREAT BEAUTY fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through another cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of REBORN IDEALISM OF HOPE!
I myself have suffered from mental illness since I was five years old. There are promises I have been able to keep and others that I couldn’t because they shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Being normal isn’t something I strive for because even thought I have always been different and in school it was always the most difficult, I know now that normal is different for each individual and there is no normal. You are special you see the world in a way many wish they could. I started having hallucinations when I was five and I have been on antidepressants and mood stabilizers for almost 15 years now. I can’t tell you life is a cake walk, but it is worth it. I go to a support group where we actually call normal people muggles for we are the ones with magical thinking and muggles are the ones who can’t see the world we live in for they have no magic. I commend your promise to stop hurting yourself and I myself have been SI free for three years now. Good luck and know that the path you walk is well traveled and there is help out there when you want it. I suggest DBSA or NAMI for help in finding support in being you!
That IS a great idea. Thumbs up!