Thanks to Lauren for sending us her story!
"Hello, my name is Lauren and I am 19 years old, live in Orem, Utah, and I am attending UVU. I grew up in Pueblo, Colorado. I just want to talk a little bit about my story of overcoming depression.
My depression all started my freshman year of high school when I was playing softball. When I played softball I always felt like there was pressure on me to be the best pitcher in the league. My dad pushed me to be the best and told me to never give up on myself. I felt that every time I threw a bad pitch or I didn't hit the ball that I was a horrible player and that I would never make it big. I started to get major anxiety and I was always sad and didn't know why. My parents started to notice and would always try to help me, but I felt like nothing worked for me.
One day my team wanted to have a team bonding night, so we went over to my friend's house, and we decided to go to a party. We went to this party and we smoked and drank and suddenly I was out cold. Waking up the next morning, I didn't know what had happened and I had a major headache. My friend had to take me home and I had to hide the smell of smoke from my parents. I felt like I had betrayed them and my Heavenly Father.
The next day at school, one of the player's moms found a text about the party and told the principal about what happened. The few girls that were involved got called in one by one by our pricipal and the coach and they asked us if we smoked weed and drank. We all denyed it, but they threatened to give us a drug test. My mom and dad were called in and I could tell by their face that they were not happy to see me and they were very disappointed in me. We could have gotten expelled, but we got suspended 5 games and a week from school. Because of that, the team had a horrible season and we didn't make it to state.
From then on I kept having problems. My mom and I started fighting a lot, and she started taking me to therapy. I failed my driver's permit test 13 times. My parents wanted me to transfer high schools, and that made me incredibly sad because I didn't want to lose all of my friends. I started to feel like guys were using and abusing me in my relationships with them. I have never been on a proper date and it makes me feel like I am ugly or fat. I started to gain weight my junior year of high school when I started to take some antidepressant medication. That made my depression even worse, and I have never felt so low, and to this day I am very self-conscious that I am trying to overcome. I am trying to take it day by day and trying to do things that make me happy. I feel like I am getting better and my roommates have helped me a lot this year with church. I am just so grateful for the people in my life, and I don't know what I would do without them."
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