When I was 7 my brother passed away May 2013 and I would get really upset and cry myself to sleep. Not too long before my brother died my dad went to prison. I got made fun of at school, when I was 12 I decided to start cutting myself until someone helped me. I stopped worrying about other people and what they had to say to me.
HELP YOURSELF:
- Thank you so much for sharing your story with TeenCentral. We feel for the losses you’ve experienced and the tough times you had to overcome. It takes a lot of courage and strength to work through these things and we are so glad that you have grown from your struggles. Great job and keep going.
- Working through grief and loss can be a long process that takes a lot of time and support. If you are ever looking for additional support, we encourage you to check out some of the resources on TeenCentral. Aside from the stories of others that you can read, there’s a lot of great information on topics like bullying, self-injury and grief/loss within our LEARN tab.
- It’s really awesome that you were able to seek support within your own life to help work through your challenges. Keep building that network of support so that if you ever need help, it’s there.
WHERE TO GO FROM HERE:
- Keep going with working on your growth and healing. Even when you are having good days it’s important to still focus on how to make improvements. Identify long-term goals for yourself, maybe something you want for yourself a year from now, and keep working toward that goal with smaller goals that take shorter amounts of time.
- Even when we feel like we have fully overcome our struggles, hard moments still happen. What are some coping skills you can use in the future if you are having a tough time? Maybe make a list so that you have it if you need it. We’re big fans of the “10 minute rule” – do something for yourself for 10 minutes every day – what you do is up to you as long as it feels healthy, safe and brings a sense of calm or peace.
- It can be really difficult to develop and maintain healthy relationships when you have lost people close to you. We encourage you to keep working on strengthening the positive relationships in your life that are important to you.
