High school struggles
17 year old female
Things started going wrong when I started high school. Before then I was reasonably happy albeit shy. Then I started at an exclusive private school as a scholarship student. I was an outcast, moving from one group to another and acquiring dangerous coping strategies. By the time I was 14 I was self-harming and suicidal, unable to handle the workload, isolation at school and some serious issues going on in my life at the time.
At 15 I found myself at home alone one evening and, browsing the net, decided to go on Kids Helpline Web Counselling. The counsellor who took my call was patient and over about two years devoted a lot of time to me, saw me through two suicide attempts and refused to give up on me like I'd given up on myself.
It wasn't easy, nobody ever said it would be. Heaps of times I rang her, almost crying and desperate for someone to talk to, and more than once Kids Helpline had to notify appropriate authorities so I could get immediate and intensive help.
Thanks to the lovely staff on Kids Helpline I survived and am now training to become a counsellor myself. The battle isn't over and I still have bad days but Kids Helpline always find the time to pull me back up and remind me that relapsing is just part of life, it's not a failure.
