“It’s like chipping away at a boulder.”

“I’ve been through so much. Something good is bound to happen, eventually.”

When he was 7 years old, Clark was sexually assaulted. He spent the next two years suffering in silence before he told his parents about the trauma. Since then, Cark has been on a journey to cope with an event that continues to have emotional repercussions. Clark says, “No matter how much power that has, my psyche is stronger. I’m stronger than that.” Clark is now 18, and he’s about to go to college.

”I heard silence for the first time. And that was a beautiful thing.”

“You are not broken.”

Rachel has struggled with eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. Along the way, she’s self-medicated and connected with her spirituality. After being institutionalized, Rachel was diagnosed with bipolar 1.

“I didn’t fully grasp what was happening to me.”

“My intuition was, ‘This is not right.’”

“I’m still here to tell the story.”

For Zach, an SSRI prescription had an unexpected outcome: He stopped sleeping and careened into manic bouts. After a psychotic episode that resulted in an inpatient hospitalization, Zach was given a diagnosis of bipolar. Today, he adheres to a careful regimen of medications that keep him focused and stable.