Topic: self-harm
On my road to recovery from self-harm, I knew that asking for help was always going to be the most difficult step—but essential if I wanted to get better. And so I did something that scared me: I pushed the keys to spell out the word "CONNECT" and sent the message to 741741. Then, I waited.
I have a history of substance abuse and self-injury. My work is all about encountering people who know these struggles intimately as well.
Slowly over time though, I began to regain that energy to eat, to shower, to socialize, to be creative.
Just over a year ago, I was hospitalized because I was going to kill myself. My depression and anxiety had gotten so bad that I was convinced that my death was the best solution...
With the following 28 keystrokes, I am going to write one of the most difficult sentences I have ever written for a public audience: I struggle with self-injury.
Over the last three years, I’ve strung together periods of time where I was clean from self-harm for a single day, an entire week, even ten months — only to relapse. It’s frustrating. But there’s no shame in that. Today though, I’ve reached a full year of being clean.
