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“Depression Was Not Discussed,” by Stephanie Green
Growing up as a black girl in a small black town in Indiana, Depression was not discussed. Life was simple until at the age of 9, I was repeatedly raped by a family friend. The family friend also molested, and raped 8 little girls in total, the youngest being 4 years old. No one told their parents this was going on. The truth finally came out when the 4 year old started acting out. When asked what was going on, she told that she was being touched inappropriately. The family friend was then asked who else he was touching. And he gave the names of the other girls involved. The parents did not inform the authorities and the situation was swept under the rug. By the age of 14, I had my first nervous breakdown and suicide attempt and was sent to the psychiatric hospital for a month. I was diagnosed with Major Depression. My high school years are a blur. I was self-destructive, unhappy, and promiscuous. My family didn’t understand what was going on with me. I remember my mother making a comment that I was possessed by the Demons, which was why I was depressed. She considered me rebellious and that I had wronged God is some way.
By the age of 19, I was pregnant with my first child and in the psychiatric hospital again and my mother telling me I could not come back home. Once my psychiatric stay was up, I was sent to an unwed mother’s home, where I stayed for a couple of months (I ended up keeping my baby girl). During my second pregnancy I developed Postpartum Depression. It was so debilitating that I tried to take my life for a second time and ended back up in the psychiatric hospital. During my stay I had no where to live so I ended up in residential living for individuals with a mental illness. I lived there for a year and then moved to Colorado with my sister.
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In 1992, there was another suicide attempt and I was unable to work. I was approved for Disability/Social Security for Major Depression. I was on Disability for 4 years where I gradually became stable from Depression. Though my years of struggling and battling with Depression I noticed I was doing it by myself. I did not have a support system.
When I founded Another Life Foundation (AlifeF) in 2005, the goal was to address this problem. Our unique volunteer mentoring program was started to address the problem of no community and family support systems. The mentors can be in recovery from Depression or individuals who just want to help others. The mentors volunteer their time, personal experience, and hope to form friendships with individuals battling with Depression.
Depression is the leading cause of suicide.
The mentoring program target audience is between the ages of 25 to 55, non-clinical individuals. These individuals have jobs, mortgages, and a family to support. If you saw them on the street you wouldn’t know they had Depression. The program serves to help those unnoticed sufferers of Depression.
The mentoring program was started in Colorado, and then in 2007 we branched out nationally. The organization receives numerous calls and e-mails from individuals wanting to mentor others and calls and e-mails from those who want to be mentored. The volunteer mentors receive a one-hour training and application process. They are then paired with a person who wants to be mentored. The mentor and the person being mentored can communicate by telephone, e-mail, and instant messaging. The mentor is available to talk, and meet one on one. The volunteer mentor is required to send in monthly reports about their mentoree. With these monthly reports the organization is able to see that the volunteer mentor program is working to complete its goal.
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“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” —Muhammad Ali |