My family has never been one to take up counseling. They like to bottle things up, and I must admit I am a little guilty of this as well. A few years ago there was a traumatizing situation in my sisters life, and it broke the bottle inside of her and all emotions came out at once. Even though she ended up on the right side of the situation, she had to live with the affects and in constant fear of that trauma. I saw my sisters demons appear suddenly at the age of 28, and I saw her completely broken down for over a year. Now she has become significantly better with her mental health. She still struggles, but she is definitely back to the sister and daughter we used to know. This is her story.
My sister became extremely depressed, had severe anxiety, and even turned to alcohol to try to make herself feel better. She lost over 40 pounds from depression. Before the was on average weighing about 130 and she jumped down to 90 pounds. She was at an all time low. She even turned against some of us family members, and completely shut us out. I was the only one who was actually there for her anymore. When I realized she needed more than just my help, I told her to think about counseling. I told her I wouldn't tell anyone else, that just me and her husband would know about the counseling. She would have to drive about an hour and fifteen minutes to San Angelo twice a week for this. I helped baby sit my nephew on these days until her husband got off of work.
My sister started her mental health journey. She went to 8 months of counseling. The entire family started to see improvement after about 4 months. She wasn't completely back to herself, but she came around more and she was opening up to us again. However, she still couldn't put down the alcohol. She went out with her friends one night and she decided to drink and drive. She ended up being in a horrible car accident, and committing several hit and runs. She is lucky to be alive. It was this moment, when she finally realized she wanted to actually get better herself. She put her whole heart into it. She started going to AA meetings, and she started taking up activities on her own time to keep her busy, and still continued her counseling.
She finally decided to tell the entire family about everything that went on in her mind, and about the counseling. Both of us were nervous about how our family would react to it, and to our surprise they all listened and supported her entirely. This was another key moment in her journey that really helped her get through everything. The amount of support and love we showed her was so wonderful. She will tell you today that counseling saved her life.
After talking to my sister about all of this here is what she said "At first I thought counseling was for crazy people. But the reality of it is that bottling up your emotions and feelings can be dangerous, and counseling can save lives. Without it I would have truly fallen off the deep end." She still continues to struggle with anxiety, but she no longer suffers from depression, and she has gained all her weight back that she lost. Since she has gotten better, she has not even touched alcohol. We are all very proud of her, and we continue to remind her of how strong she is and how much we love her.
Due to the fact that she is still uncomfortable about her story she asked me not to put any pictures of her, a video of her, and to not use her name. However, she was excited to share her story and spread mental health awareness.
Sources:
If you are interested in learning about certain disorders or more about mental health here are a few websites you can visit!
