There was a time when I was completely alone. I was overdosing. I was in and out of psych wards. That went on for years, and I didn’t know if things would ever be different.

When I lost my housing, my social worker stepped in. She reached out to a friend of hers, another social worker, who was connected to a HOME Society. That one phone call changed everything. The HOME Society took me in, and they were there for me the whole way through.

What they did for me sounds simple, but it meant everything. They kept me loved. They kept me safe. And they never gave up on me. When you’ve been through what I’ve been through, having someone refuse to give up on you is the most powerful thing in the world. I didn’t always make it easy. But they stayed.

It has been ten years since I was last in a psych ward. Ten years. I am out of the hospital. I am reading my story to others now, sharing what I’ve been through so that maybe someone else doesn’t have to feel as alone as I once did.

If you are thinking about reaching out for help but you haven’t done it yet, I want to talk to you. I know you will have different feelings about it. Different thoughts. It can feel scary or impossible or like it won’t work for you. I understand that. I really do.

But please, get help. Please reach out.

I am living proof that things can change. I didn’t believe it once either. But someone believed it for me while I was still figuring it out, and that made all the difference. Now I get to be that for someone else.

You deserve to have someone in your corner who won’t give up on you. That person, that support, that place — it exists. Take the step. You are worth it.