MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER
We Heart Our Lives exists as a direct result of my own battles with depression and suicidal ideation.
There were many times I contemplated and gathered the means to go through with taking my own life.
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I vividly remember one day in 2014 waking up in the middle of the night, with an overwhelming amount of panic and anxiety. I was finally ready to end it all as I collected all the painkillers I could find around the house. As I sat to consider my actions one final time, I realized I didn’t want to die, I just didn’t want to live.
I felt confused and isolated at this personal discovery and more than anything feared being misunderstood. I wasn’t interested in hearing all of the melodramatic explanations to disregard or minimize the intense emotional torture I was experiencing. I began to think about all the close friends and family I lost to suicide and what they must have been going through.
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Not knowing how to emotionally process my feelings I became angered, upset and confused.
However, I realized at that moment that every time I’ve heard someone talking about their honest experience with mental health and suicide my own feelings became a little clearer and in turn a little easier to heal.
I began the search for someone to talk to my pain. I needed a fireside moment, yet all I could find were obnoxious motivational videos and evidence of everyone living their best lives with every post shared. There I was, stuck and unable to imagine my way out of my own hurt. I felt broken but gave myself the night to recover. Never said the motivational videos weren’t helpful.
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I was so bothered by the lack of conversation around suicide and mental health that it inspired me to set out on my journey to create a platform dedicated to it.
My goal to create a space where people can come together and share their truth without fear of judgment or stigma and help us all feel less alone, has been set in motion.
Mental health has never been a more critical issue than it is today. To combat the epidemic we face, we have to acknowledge it and bring it into the open.
With that, We Heart Our Lives was born. It took me a few years to muster up the courage to create this community and I hope you feel empowered to join and start the healing together.
-Nicole.
