Beth
Beth
Find the love and support of others to move forward
Once I started to take my story back and I shared it, I started to feel more like I could control it. I could control my own narrative.
Beth has a story to tell about mental health. It’s a complicated story. Hard and often sad. But it’s also a story of perseverance, progress, and hope.
I was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder around the time I was 18. I started to get panic attacks and intrusive thoughts. It was scary as all heck, and I ended up going to counseling.
Years later, after she gave birth to her son, her mental health issues increased. She experienced severe postpartum depression and started to misuse alcohol.
Things spiraled very quickly. I turned to alcohol.
Within the first eight months of my son’s life, I lost everything. A month after that, I had a major suicide attempt. I tried to drown myself in the Charles River.
I was so blessed to be saved. I was brought to a hospital in Boston, and they diagnosed me with bipolar disorder.
For a while, Beth was confused by her new diagnosis, but she came to accept her situation and underwent treatment.
Today, she checks in regularly with a therapist and a psychiatrist, and she takes medications to keep her condition in check. She has been sober for more than three years, and she has reunited with her son.
“I would tell people to find at least one person in your life you can trust. Find someone to walk this journey with you.”
An important part of Beth’s recovery has been her willingness to share her story with others.
In recent years, she has started working with This Is My Brave, an international organization that fights stigma by highlighting personal stories about mental health and addiction.
Their whole platform is to use the power of storytelling to break stigma.
So, I shared a story about the stigma I encountered, and I tapped into the pain I felt over losing custody of my son for a while—how shameful and awful it felt.
Telling her story helps Beth take charge of her mental wellness. She believes it can help others too.
Today, she works as a peer specialist and recovery coach, drawing on her experiences to help others fight stigma, get help, and heal. She believes that people need the love and support of others to move forward.
I’m a single mom, so I walk a lot of this alone. But I have an unbelievable friend group. My friends are everything to me.
I would tell people to find at least one person in your life you can trust. Find someone to walk this journey with you.
With her career in mental health and her work with This Is My Brave, Beth is optimistic about the future—not just for herself but also for everyone facing the challenges of mental health.
When I was 18 and I was first diagnosed, it was scary and confusing. I didn’t know what to do.
But now I think of my son, and I know he’s going to grow up in such a different world. It makes me happy to know he’ll have that.
