You are not depressed you just need to do something fun once a week”. This is the single most scary thing I was ever told by my long term physician I was two weeks later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, what comes along with this disorder is mania, depression, and anxiety. After several attempts at my own life and years of wondering if I was normal to feel this way or would ever be genuinely happy again, this one instance one interaction made me loose hope of a normal happy future. Not only did this happen to me but it had happened to countless others I know who try to get help for mental health issues. I found out after my grandfather and grandmother had ultimately died prematurely because of ignorance and laziness of physicians in the past. My uncle had been ignored for heart issues saying he was making this up and died years ago. And I realized this ignorance happened more often than not by physicians who cared more for a paycheck than their real life patients who entailed their trust in them. This moment jump started my passion to join the health care field. I learned to advocate for myself because I had nobody else to help not even my own physician of ten years. Here was this person I trusted with my help who would not trust or care to look into this issue with me and help me get better. I learned after this day I wanted to help others this incident was something that shocked me, I could not believe this was how my mental illness was handled. Dismissed and with it my feelings and ultimately my life. I never wanted anybody else to feel this way and felt I could not trust anybody else to do this so I decided to become this advocate for others. I have since jumped around through providers and medication listening to how I react and what my body wants to help myself get better. I have learned that I have to take every day one day at a time. Who I am and how I feel one day may not be the same as the next and I need to cherish every good day, and remember that the bad days will pass and everything changes, nothing stays the same. I have met many fantastic physicians and therapists along the way who inspire me every day. They advocate me and I have found the good in the health care industry. I may not know exactly what nursing specialty I want to go into, but I know I want to help advocate for everybody and especially young women and teens who are ignored and dismissed I want to validate feelings and help patients to get to the best place they can to live a happy and healthy life. Thank you.

You are not depressed you just need to do something fun once a week”. This is the single most scary thing I was ever told by my long term physician I was two weeks later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and with this came mania, depression, and anxiety. After several attempts at my own life and years of wondering if I was normal to feel this way or would ever be genuinely happy again, this one instance one interaction made me loose hope of a normal happy future. Not only did this happen to me but it had happened to countless others I know who try to get help for mental health issues. I found out after my grandfather and grandmother had ultimately died prematurely because of ignorance and laziness of physicians in the past. My uncle had been ignored for heart issues saying he was making this up and died years ago. And I realized this ignorance happened more often than not by physicians who cared more for a paycheck than their real life patients who entailed their trust in them. This moment jump started my passion to join the health care field. I learned to advocate for myself because I had nobody else to help not even my own physician of ten years. Here was this person I trusted with my help who would not trust or care to look into this issue with me and help me get better. I learned after this day I wanted to help others this incident was something that shocked me, I could not believe this was how my mental illness was handled. Dismissed and with it my feelings and ultimately my life. I never wanted anybody else to feel this way and felt I could not trust anybody else to do this so I decided to become this advocate for others. I have since jumped around through providers and medication listening to how I react and what my body wants to help myself get better. I have learned to fight through every day one day at a time. Living with bipolar its never guaranteed that the next day is going to be the same as the day before. Some days I'm onto of the world and nothing can stop me and a day later I am lying in bed crying and not wanting to move, talk, or do much of anything. Because of this I have learned to treasure every good day and learned to remember that the bad days will pass and nothing stays the same forever. Since my diagnosis I have met many fantastic physicians and therapists along the way who inspire me every day. They advocate for me and I have found the good in the health care industry. I may not know exactly what nursing specialty I want to go into, but I know I want to help advocate for everybody and especially young women and teens who are ignored and dismissed I want to validate feelings and help patients to get to the best place they can to live a happy and healthy life. Thank you.

You are not depressed you just need to do something fun once a week”. This is the single most scary thing I was ever told by my long term physician I was two weeks later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After several attempts at my own life and years of wondering if I was normal to feel this way or would ever be genuinely happy again, this one instance one interaction made me loose hope of a normal happy future. Not only did this happen to me but it had happened to countless others I know who try to get help for mental health issues. I found out after my grandfather and grandmother had ultimately died prematurely because of ignorance and laziness of physicians in the past. My uncle had been ignored for heart issues saying he was making this up and died years ago. And I realized this ignorance happened more often than not by physicians who cared more for a paycheck than their real life patients who entailed their trust in them. This moment jump started my passion to join the health care field. I learned to advocate for myself because I had nobody else to help not even my own physician of ten years. Here was this person I trusted with my help who would not trust or care to look into this issue with me and help me get better. I learned after this day I wanted to help others this incident was something that shocked me, I could not believe this was how my mental illness was handled. Dismissed and with it my feelings and ultimately my life. I never wanted anybody else to feel this way and felt I could not trust anybody else to do this so I decided to become this advocate for others. I have since jumped around through providers and medication listening to how I react and what my body wants to help myself get better. I have met many fantastic physicians and therapists along the way who inspire me everyday. They advocate me and I have found the good in the health care industry. I may not know exactly what nursing specialty I want to go into but I know I want to help advocate for everybody and especially young women and teens who are ignored and dismissed I want to validate feelings and help patients to get to the best place they can to live a happy and healthy life. Thank you.

Hello, My name is Isabella Simone, I am a freshman at Rhode Isalnd College and will be applying to the nursing program at the end of this semester. I want to join the nursing field to advocate for my patients because I know what its like to be on the other side having no advocate. You are not depressed you just need to do something fun once a week”. This is the single most scary thing I was ever told by my long term physician I was two weeks later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After several attempts at my own life and years of wondering if I was normal to feel this way or would ever be genuinely happy again, this one instance one interaction made me loose hope of a normal happy future. Not only did this happen to me but it had happened to countless others I know who try to get help for mental health issues. I found out after my grandfather and grandmother had ultimately died prematurely because of ignorance and laziness of physicians in the past. My uncle had been ignored for heart issues saying he was making this up and died years ago. And I realized this ignorance happened more often than not by physicians who cared more for a paycheck than their real life patients who entailed their trust in them. This moment jump started my passion to join the health care field. I learned to advocate for myself because I had nobody else to help not even my own physician of ten years. Here was this person I trusted with my help who would not trust or care to look into this issue with me and help me get better. I learned after this day I wanted to help others this incident was something that shocked me, I could not believe this was how my mental illness was handled. Dismissed and with it my feelings and ultimately my life. I never wanted anybody else to feel this way and felt I could not trust anybody else to do this, so I decided to become this advocate for others. I have since jumped around through providers and medication listening to how I react and what my body wants to help myself get better. I have met many fantastic physicians and therapists along the way who inspire me every day. They advocate me and I have found the good in the health care industry. In the healthcare field there are rare diseases that are not studied often, and providers are scared to look at this diagnosis as options. I am making it my mission to look at every possible reason and outcome for somebody and do everything I can to help and believe in my patients. I may not know exactly what nursing specialty I want to go into, but I know I want to help advocate for everybody and especially those who are ignored and dismissed I want to validate feelings and help patients to get to the best place they can to live a happy and healthy life. Thank you.

You are not depressed you just need to do something fun once a week”. This is the single most scary thing I was ever told by my long term physician I was two weeks later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After several attempts at my own life and years of wondering if I was normal to feel this way or would ever be genuinely happy again, this one instance one interaction made me loose hope of a normal happy future. Not only did this happen to me but it had happened to countless others I know who try to get help for mental health issues. I found out after my grandfather and grandmother had ultimately died prematurely because of ignorance and laziness of physicians in the past. My uncle had been ignored for heart issues saying he was making this up and died years ago. And I realized this ignorance happened more often than not by physicians who cared more for a paycheck than their real life patients who entailed their trust in them. This moment jump started my passion to join the health care field. I learned to advocate for myself because I had nobody else to help not even my own physician of ten years. Here was this person I trusted with my help who would not trust or care to look into this issue with me and help me get better. I learned after this day I wanted to help others this incident was something that shocked me, I could not believe this was how my mental illness was handled. Dismissed and with it my feelings and ultimately my life. I never wanted anybody else to feel this way and felt I could not trust anybody else to do this so I decided to become this advocate for others. I have since jumped around through providers and medication listening to how I react and what my body wants to help myself get better. I have met many fantastic physicians and therapists along the way who inspire me everyday. They advocate me and I have found the good in the health care industry. Right now I am not sure what field of nursing I want to go into however i want to help advocate for everybody and especially young women and teens who are ignored and dismissed I want to validate feelings and help patients to get to the best place they can to live a happy and healthy life. Thank you.

" You are not depressed; you just need to do something fun once a week" (My primary care physician). This line hit me like a brick wall. A week after my eighteenth birthday I decided to find help for my mental health. After years and years of feeling like I didn't want to live anymore countless extreme highs and lows and a failed suicide attempt. I finally built up the courage to ask for help, and this is the line that my doctor told me. Having a panic attack and breaking down in tears I asked to leave and walked out of this appointment feeling defeated, hopeless, and scared for my future I finally reached out to my mom and told her about my mental health over the last few years. Dealing with a bipolar mom and depression herself she understood and was enraged by my doctor. At my breaking point a few days later my mom and myself make the decision to admit myself to butler hospital in hopes of receiving help. The same day I was diagnosed Bipolar. Without the help of these mental health professionals, I don't know if I would be here today. This was my first experience that showed me I wanted to become a nurse. I want to be a nurse to advocate for others the way that I was not. I want to advocate and never let anybody especially teenagers feel like they are not heard or seen. The experience I went through was sad and is crazy to me that someone I had trusted and gone to for years shut me down like this and did not even give me a chance at help but dismissed me. As someone who struggles and has struggled my whole life, I know how easy it is to deem someone crazy or lying or dramatic and I don't ever want this to happen n to anybody else. It only takes one person to be the difference between life and death and i want to be the person that helps somebody in life and makes the difference. I also want to educate others on how to help somebody with mental health issues because I don't think it should take a professional in that field to help I think every medical personal should have the tools and education to help somebody no matter age, race, or gender. Even If I can help just one person in my life than I will count myself successful in my future. Because that one person who helped me made a difference and I will continue to do so.

"You're extremely obese" (My pediatrician). From the time I was ten years old I feared every time I had to step foot into a doctor's office. I would hear the same thing over and over again years of hearing that I needed to lose weight from the age of ten. Looking back at this now I wish this experience and " advice" from medical professionals actually came from a place of caring and would have actually been helpful. I heard time and time again "what do you like to do, do more of that", any active things that doctors could think of they recommended. However, I never had a single doctor, nurse, or anyone else explain the idea of healthy eating and how that could transform me for the better. As a child and still every day i battle binge eating, I thought i was a lost cause I thought i was bound to be overweight my whole life. That was until i came to the realization through the use of social media that this was something I could work on mentally. I had to work on my mental health and rebuild my relationship with food to become the healthiest version of myself that I could be. As a nurse I'm making it my mission to advocate for my patients, especially younger children and teens. These ages are most vulnerable and need to be educated not only on exercise habits but also eating habits. If i had known about the importance of nutrition and ways to work on it sooner I could have lost the 60 ponds that i have now lost sooner and felt happier, more energetic, and more like myself earlier. Starting my new career as a nurse in the next three years I will make sure to show compassion and education on nutrition rather than scoldings. I will continue to educate myself on eating habits such as eating mindfully, everything in moderation, and clean eating. I am going to make it my priority to teach children of the benefits besides weight loss like disease prevention, the benefits such as more energy, more capabilities to do activities, and an overall better feeling of yourself and your world. I will not use charts and scales like professionals did to me because this made me feel anxious, terrible about myself, and overall scaring as a child but I will use examples because I can personally relate to these patients and show them that eating healthy has helped me achieve my goals in life and can help them too. I want to do everything I can to make sure my patients live their life to their fullest and using nutrition to encourage this because we only have one life and it's my mission to help everyone fulfill it to their fullest potential.

“You are not depressed you just need to do something fun once a week”. This is the single most scary thing I was ever told by my long term physician I was two weeks later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After several attempts at my own life and years of wondering if I was normal to feel this way or would ever be genuinely happy again, this one instance one interaction made me loose hope of a normal happy future. Not only did this happen to me but it had happened to countless others I know who try to get help for mental health issues. I found out after my grandfather and grandmother had ultimately died prematurely because of ignorance and laziness of physicians in the past. My uncle had been ignored for heart issues saying he was making this up and died years ago. And I realized this ignorance happened more often than not by physicians who cared more for a paycheck than their real life patients who entailed their trust in them. This moment jump started my passion to join the health care field. I learned to advocate for myself because I had nobody else to help not even my own physician of ten years. Here was this person I trusted with my help who would not trust or care to look into this issue with me and help me get better. I learned after this day I wanted to help others this incident was something that shocked me, I could not believe this was how my mental illness was handled. Dismissed and with it my feelings and ultimately my life. I never wanted anybody else to feel this way and felt I could not trust anybody else to do this so I decided to become this advocate for others. I have since jumped around through providers and medication listening to how I react and what my body wants to help myself get better. I have met many fantastic physicians and therapists along the way who inspire me everyday. They advocate me and I have found the good in the health care industry. I start RIC in the fall and hope to start nursing school next year to help advocate for everybody and especially young women and teens who are ignored and dismissed I want to validate feelings and help patients to get to the best place they can to live a happy and healthy life. Thank you. I found out about this scholarship from a lady who had a link in her TikTok bio for nursing scholarships.