Sometimes band-aids aren’t enough

Chris Yarzab

My name is Marissa. Since I was 13, I struggled with clinical depression. It was triggered when my parents divorced, and I was expected to become an adult at a young age. A short year later, I started drinking to ease some of the pain and anxiety. When I found that this only lasted a little while, I started cutting. Then came the drugs, and I became severely addicted to them.

I’ve always been depressed. But it got to be too much when my parents got divorced when I was 13. Because of that, I started drinking with my friends, hoping to God that it would take my mind off of my troubles. Well, it didn’t. I then started cutting and doing drugs every day. I smoked weed and cut myself every day for a year straight. I became heavily addicted to weed, and it destroyed everything. Not only my mind, but my body and relationships with everyone around me.

I decided I didn’t want to be like that anymore and that I needed to get my old life back, the one where happiness was just so effortless. So, I told my parents to check me in to a mental hospital. I spent six and a half weeks in there getting over withdrawals and finding ways to cope with my depression other than cutting myself. After I got out of treatment, I went in to Alcoholics Anonymous. It is amazing how much my life has changed since I have been in there. I found God and serenity. I am finally okay and happy with my life.

Some days I still struggle, but that’s okay, everyone does. Without the strength of my family to help me, and without Alcoholics Anonymous, I wouldn’t be where I am today, almost one year sober, no ugly cuts on my arms, and the strength to carry me through my days. If I can do it, you can too. I believe in each and every one of you.

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  babygirl91607

  Your story has really touched my heart! I also suffer from depression I was diagnosed when I was 12 and I started cutting at 14. But may I ask how it helped you going to a mental institution?  Thanks! And congratulations on getting better!

  December 29, 2012

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