My experience with mental health has greatly shaped my goals, relationships, and understanding of the world. Although my life experiences have not been the best, they have brought me to where I am today and have shown me that you can genuinely achieve anything. For some background information, my father has been in and out of my life since I was born, due to drug use and various mental illnesses. My mother raised me and my sister on her own since she was 19. My mother struggled while taking care of us our whole lives, due to poverty, multiple mental illness, etc. Due to genetics, mental illnesses and disorders have passed onto me. I have struggled my whole life with anxiety, depression and extreme ADHD. The medications I took made me feel like I was a completely different person. I felt like I was in someone else’s world, which i had no control over. When i was younger I would often refuse to take my medications on and off, and this carried up until the end of my sophomore year of high school. Between my freshman and sophomore years, I remained completely unmedicated and had fallen into an extremely deep hole. I was failing in school, very depressed, and just un motivated to even live my own life. My mother and I soon decided for me to transfer schools, to see if anything would change. The school I transferred to, and currently attend to this day, is Hurricane High school- located in Hurricane, West Virginia. I began to take my medication at the beginning of the school year at my new school. It caused a lot of anxiety and still wasn’t right for me. I came to this school everyday feeling completely alone, I didn’t like the environment for me, I had no friends, and I was nervous to even do my work around others. To save you some time, I will skip forward, and tell you that eventually i did find the right meditations for me. I tried my hardest to adjust my mindset and look at things differently. I can say that it was the most difficult thing I have ever encountered, but here, right now I can say that I did it. I try to look at everything in the most positive ways possible. I have worked my hardest to not only get to where I am now, but to push my myself out of the hole I had previously been in. That hole in my life has always haunted me, but that hole was ME. That hole was the same person that had changed her life around to get to where she wants to be. I have deep sympathy for the old me, I would never have imagined to be where I am now. But without my past, I wouldn’t have the strength that I now carry with me everyday. I continue to grow and work on myself and my mental health every single day. I will always give it my best to remain positive and not compare myself to others, because everyone has their own struggles. To end this essay, I would like to share that i hope everyone who struggles with mental illness and a difficult childhood, can learn to look at the world in the best way possible, to stay strong, and keep their health a priority. This wasn’t easy for me, but I did it, and that is my greatest achievement. Thank you.

Although my life experiences have not been the best, they have brought me to where I am today and have shown me that you can genuinely achieve anything. For some background information, my father has been in and out of my life since I was born, due to drug use and various mental illnesses. My mother raised me and my sister on her own since she was 19. My mother struggled while taking care of us our whole lives, due to poverty, multiple mental illness, etc. Due to genetics, mental illnesses and disorders have passed onto me. I have struggled my whole life with anxiety, depression and extreme ADHD. The medications I took made me feel like I was a completely different person. I felt like I was in someone else’s world, which i had no control over. When i was younger I would often refuse to take my medications on and off, and this carried up until the end of my sophomore year of high school. Between my freshman and sophomore years, I remained completely unmedicated and had fallen into an extremely deep hole. I was failing in school, very depressed, and just un motivated to even live my own life. My mother and I soon decided for me to transfer schools, to see if anything would change. The school I transferred to, and currently attend to this day, is Hurricane High school- located in Hurricane, West Virginia. I began to take my medication at the beginning of the school year at my new school. It caused a lot of anxiety and still wasn’t right for me. I came to this school everyday feeling completely alone, I didn’t like the environment for me, I had no friends, and I was nervous to even do my work around others. To save you some time, I will skip forward, and tell you that eventually i did find the right meditations for me. I tried my hardest to adjust my mindset and look at things differently. I can say that it was the most difficult thing I have ever encountered, but here, right now I can say that I did it. I try to look at everything in the most positive ways possible. I have worked my hardest to not only get to where I am now, but to push my myself out of the hole I had previously been in. That hole in my life has always haunted me, but that hole was ME. That hole was the same person that had changed her life around to get to where she wants to be. I have deep sympathy for the old me, I would never have imagined to be where I am now. But without my past, I wouldn’t have the strength that I now carry with me everyday. I continue to grow and work on myself and my mental health every single day. I will always give it my best to remain positive and not compare myself to others, because everyone has their own struggles. To end this essay, I would like to share that i hope everyone who struggles with mental illness and a difficult childhood, can learn to look at the world in the best way possible, to stay strong, and keep their health a priority. This wasn’t easy for me, but I did it, and that is my greatest achievement. Thank you.

My mother is someone who has profoundly impacted my life and helped me realize my full potential. For some background information, my father has been in and out of my life since I was born, due to drug use and various mental illnesses. My mother raised me and my sister on her own since she was 19. My mother struggled while taking care of us our whole lives, due to poverty, multiple mental illnesses, etc. My mother has always had custody of me and my sister. While she was pregnant with me she worked 3 jobs. Up until my high school years she still worked every single day. Throughout my entire childhood my mom had welcomed many family members into our home and supported them, along with my step-siblings that had no relation to her. My mom has the kindest heart and supported others who needed it, when she could barely support herself. As a child I never had questioned what i had or my happiness. She was able to not let us see the struggles and to give us a life any child would adore within her harsh reality. Due to genetics, mental illnesses and disorders have passed onto me. I have struggled my whole life with extreme ADHD, then later came along anxiety and depression. The medications I took made me feel like I was a completely different person. I felt like I was in someone else’s world, which i had no control over. When i was younger I would often refuse to take my medications on and off, and this carried up until the end of my sophomore year of high school. Between my freshman and sophomore years, I remained completely unmedicated and had fallen into an extremely deep hole. I was failing in school, very depressed, and just un motivated to even live my own life. My mother and I soon decided for me to transfer schools, to see if anything would change. The school I transferred to, and currently attend to this day, is Hurricane High school- located in Hurricane, West Virginia. I began to take my medication at the beginning of the school year at my new school. It caused a lot of anxiety and still wasn’t right for me. I came to this school everyday feeling completely alone, I didn’t like the environment for me, I had no friends, and I was nervous to even do my work around others. To save you some time, I will skip forward, and tell you that eventually i did find the right motivation and meditations for me. The motivation was my mother. As i got older i began realizing that she had encountered some of the hardest struggles that you could imagine and successfully overcame them on her own. She had been in the same position as me and much more. She not only taught me, but showed me how to make more for myself. My mother showed me patience, support, sympathy and courage. She taught me how to cope with the struggles I was facing, and how to work through them to work towards the best me i can be. I have watched her grow into the person she is today and couldn’t be more thankful to have her. Regardless of what i go through, i know there is hope that i can manage…because my mother did. Thank you

For a personal accomplishment, I would have to say both my positivity and drive. See, these are accomplishments to me because they are not something i’ve always had. Although my life experiences have not been the best, they have brought me to where I am today and have shown me that you can genuinely achieve anything. For some background information, my father has been in and out of my life since I was born, due to drug use and various mental illnesses. My mother raised me and my sister on her own since she was 19. My mother struggled while taking care of us our whole lives, due to poverty, multiple mental illness, etc. Due to genetics, mental illnesses and disorders have passed onto me. I have struggled my whole life with anxiety, depression and extreme ADHD. The medications I took made me feel like I was a completely different person. I felt like I was in someone else’s world, which i had no control over. When i was younger I would often refuse to take my medications on and off, and this carried up until the end of my sophomore year of high school. Between my freshman and sophomore years, I remained completely unmedicated and had fallen into an extremely deep hole. I was failing in school, very depressed, and just un motivated to even live my own life. My mother and I soon decided for me to transfer schools, to see if anything would change. The school I transferred to, and currently attend to this day, is Hurricane High school- located in Hurricane, West Virginia. I began to take my medication at the beginning of the school year at my new school. It caused a lot of anxiety and still wasn’t right for me. I came to this school everyday feeling completely alone, I didn’t like the environment for me, I had no friends, and I was nervous to even do my work around others. To save you some time, I will skip forward, and tell you that eventually i did find the right meditations for me. I tried my hardest to adjust my mindset and look at things differently. I can say that it was the most difficult thing I have ever encountered, but here, right now I can say that I did it. I try to look at everything in the most positive ways possible. I have worked my hardest to not only get to where I am now, but to push my myself out of the hole I had previously been in. That hole in my life has always haunted me, but that hole was ME. That hole was the same person that had changed her life around to get to where she wants to be. I have deep sympathy for the old me, I would never have imagined to be where I am now. But without my past, I wouldn’t have the strength that I now carry with me everyday. I continue to grow and work on myself and my mental health every single day. I will always give it my best to remain positive and not compare myself to others, because everyone has their own struggles. To end this essay, I would like to share that i hope everyone who struggles with mental illness and a difficult childhood, can learn to look at the world in the best way possible, to stay strong, and keep their health a priority. This wasn’t easy for me, but I did it, and that is my greatest achievement. Thank you.