Lacey
27, student, Originally from Texas
The transition from the valedictorian of her high school class to a young woman in distress happened very quickly for Lacey. On the outside she looked like a motivated, well-adjusted young lady with a promising future. But inside her thoughts and feelings spiraled out of control. She sought help for her depression, and managed one year of college. But the next summer was a disaster.
“I wasn’t able to verbally express how I was feeling, but I wanted others to understand how much I was hurting, so I started to cut myself,” said Lacey. “If I could redo just one moment in my life, this would be it! I had no clue how I was changing the direction of my life with that one small cut.”
The self-mutilation soon became an addiction to deal with on top of her mounting depression. When she turned 25 she began to see that at least ¼ of her life was over, and she had nothing to show for it. So the 15th time she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, she looked for a permanent solution and found A Friend's House.
“Some of the hardest months of my life were spent at A Friend’s House. I faced the reasons why I hurt myself all those years. I discovered there was a cycle that described my pattern of self destruction. Identifying the parts to this cycle helped me understand my behaviors. I learned ways to stop myself before I totally snowballed out of control,” she said.
Lacey had more than 1,000 counseling sessions before AFH, but something was different about the therapy at AFH. She explained that our therapist held her accountable to the homework she assigned, and expected changes.
After ten months of hard work, she successfully graduated in June of 2008. Now she is finishing a degree in psychology at Ball State University. “I facilitate a self-advocacy group for severely mentally ill clients, and am making plans to begin graduate school next fall to work toward a Masters in Social Work,” continued Lacey. “While I’m not able to regain seven horrific years of my life back, maybe I can save someone else from facing the giant problems I faced.”
