Louder than words

Chelsea Rae Swiggett describes the impact her social anxiety had on her life as she struggled to fit in at school and shares how she finally learned to accept her limitations and become more comfortable in her own skin and while dealing with others.

Hannah Westberg chronicles her battles with mental illness, drug abuse, and cutting, describing how she survived rehab and therapy and discovered the tools she needed for coping and living a normal, happy life.

High school senior Emily Smucker, who is prone to illnesses due to a weak immune system, describes her symptoms and how, after a series of tests and misdiagnoses, she learns she is infected with the West Nile virus.

Marni Bates, who suffers from a stress-related disorder called trichotillomania, describes how she discovered the source of her frustration that lead her to want to pull out all her hair, hide her impulse from others, and being confronted about it by others.

Seventeen-year-old Chelsey Shannon describes how, after she lost her mother to cancer when she was six, her life changed completely at age thirteen, when her father was murdered.

Alexis Singer shares the story of how she became caught up in a dangerous, emotionally dependent relationship with an online predator after a difficult junior year left her feeling lonely and vulnerable.

Chelsey's father, her only surviving parent, was violently murdered days before her fourteenth birthday. As she struggled to come to terms with her drastically changed life, Chelsey was forced to confront a new school and her identity as an orphan. Although her extended family told her she was not alone, she felt as though she was.

Rae had constant panic attacks growing up. By the time she reached ninth grade she became convinced that everyone was mocking her, judging her, and picking her apart, bit by little bit. She knew she needed help with her fear, anxiety, and social phobia.

Hannah's life has been an emotional roller coaster. In her girlhood her mother was in and out of mental hospitals. When Hannah attempted suicide the summer after eighth grade, she found herself in the same situation. Over the next five years she engaged in dangerous behaviors: pill popping, excessive dieting, and cutting herself. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and now, with tools for coping, she lives her life one day at a time.

After a bad year as a high school junior, Alexis was lonely, stressed out, and vulnerable. She became an easy target for an older man with bad intentions. By posing as a friend and confidant this man gave Alexis the attentioin she desperately craved. Within weeks Alexis was in an emotionally dependent relationship and on the way to loosing who she was, her future dreams, her psychological well-being, and her relationship with her family.