I guess that I don’t really know where to start. I have dealt with mental illness all my life. It has been an increasing struggle for me since I started college. My freshmen year I lost 15 pounds due to my anxiety. I was not anorexic, my anxiety made me physically sick to the point that I could not eat. I went to many doctors who prescribed me different medications, none that seemed to truly help. I was seeing a psychologist once a week. This helped a little, but I still was physically sick.

By my sophomore year I was severely underweight, but was doing slightly better. I had finally found a medication that took many of my anxiety and depression symptoms away or at least lessened them. I still was not doing well though. I did not feel good a single day that year. Then in the middle of spring semester I was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident. I ended up being in the hospital for a week and missing a lot of school. I still was able to finish out the semester, luckily. I tried to push this down and not think about it.

This was until I chaperoned a mission trip over the summer. It made me realize that God was right there with me through the whole thing. Even if just one thing during the accident was different I could have been killed. But God was with me. We went to a church service during the week and the pastor asked if anyone would like to share how they found God. None of the kids were going up, so I figured I would lead. This is when I truly realized that this is what I had been missing in my life. It was God. When I came back to school in the fall, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to a Cru Bible study. I didn’t know what Cru was, but I am really glad that I went. So far as a junior, I am no longer underweight and I feel good about life. My anxiety and depression have been more controlled than they ever have been and I owe it all to being able to find God.