In 2013 I began experiencing what I now know to be a hypomanic episode.
I had decided to up and leave my family, my job, my husband, and what’s until now been my life. I moved 4 hours away from everything and everyone I knew.

I ended up hurting a lot of the people I love the most in the process. Including, putting myself into many dangerous situations.

After 6 months of constant ups, I finally crashed. To save myself after a suicide attempt, I moved back home with my mother.

My mom tells me, I need to get help. I’ve always been very hesitant to accept help or take medications, so much so that I didn’t even take Tylenol if I needed it. So asking for help was a huge thing for me.

I thankfully, get in immediately with a therapist who helps me get onto an antidepressant. I then have to wait 8 more weeks to see my first psychiatrist.

My therapist suggests I find a support group to join in the mean time to help.
I started searching and noticed there weren’t many options.

I ended up finding a handful on Facebook and I joined a facebook group for support and soon thereafter become an admin, advocating for myself and others.

In 2014, I finally got in to see a psychiatrist and I was officially diagnosed with bipolar 2.

I was still admining in one of the biggest bipolar support groups on Facebook but, unfortunately I didnt like the way things were ran there so, I decided to leave that group and I created my own group and named it;
“Bipolar Awareness and Support”.

Five months into creating the group and wanting to advocate and help more people with mental illnesses of all kinds, I decided to change our group name to what is known as now;
“Mental Health Awareness and Support”

We are currently sitting at 96,000 members and are one of the largest peer to peer mental health support groups on Facebook. And we are still rapidly growing by about 600 members a month.

I couldn’t be prouder of what this group has become. It makes me feel like I, and the admins I have truly make a difference in someone’s life.

Mental health is so stigmatized and knowing that we have a safe place here on Facebook that’s absolutely free for people to reach out to other peers who may be struggling also is amazing.