“After every storm, there is a rainbow. If you have eyes, you will find it. If you have wisdom, you will create it. If you have love for yourself and others, you won’t need it.” – Shannon L. Alder

Some of the most successful folks in our community thrive despite experiencing mental health challenges. We are inspired by their strength and honored that they would share their stories with us below

Brooke Adams

Late last year leading into the beginning of 2025 my mental health was at an all time low. I was deeply depressed and felt like I wasn’t really living…I was just surviving.

I’d get up, go to work, come home exhausted, and veg out on TV or scroll social media for hours. I felt completely disconnected and numb.

And to top it all off I’d beat myself up for needing to cope. Telling myself I should be doing more when in reality my nervous system was fried. This was the cycle I was stuck in for months. Read More>>

Tierra West

Whew—mental health journeys are no joke, but God. First and foremost, it’s been faith for me—getting closer to God has been the anchor in the chaos. There’s a peace He gives that no therapy session or self-help book could ever fully replicate (though I still love both!).

Therapy has also been a game changer—but let me be real: it took me six or seven therapists before I found “the one.” Healing isn’t one-size-fits-all, and neither is the person guiding you through it. EMDR, especially, cracked open some healing I didn’t even know I needed. That, paired with consistency (even on the days I didn’t want to show up), slowly shifted things. Read More>>

Aarika Rubio

One of the biggest reasons I have been able to overcome and control my PTSD and other mental issues due to childhood trauma and trauma in my adult life is faith, and the therapy I have received. My faith and spirituality has worked hand in hand with the therapy I’ve gotten over the years. I think where one may drop off the other picks up. I have a. good spiritual background, and it’s pretty solid, the coping skills and boundaries is where the therapy helped me out. I know to always have faith that things will be okay and things will be the way they are supposed to be. Read More>>

Mónica Moreno

I’ve been dealing with mental health illnesses for well over half my life now and, with the occasional breaks or transitions in between, have been with at least one mental health provider for almost that long, too. How I manage my current mental health is vastly different from when I was a teenager or even in my early and mid-twenties. Reflecting back, it’s all been an accumulation and eventually combination of ways to live life while having mental illness; a toolbox that was once empty but now filled and ever evolving. Read More>>

Lee Swann

I’ll start by saying therapy helped a lot in putting me on the right path. I’ve had depression and anxiety since I was in high school. And when I was almost mid-twenties, I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Honestly, I still think they’re missing the “C” at the beginning of PTSD for “complex” which has been associated with people who experience trauma in their childhood. After this diagnosis stemming from a summer of breakdowns and the peak of COVID-19, the therapist I had at the time suggested I do a healing project for myself while on leave.  Read More>>