Page 12 - Silver Linings Issue4

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“I had felt that I was the only person in the world who felt like this. When you have depression, your world becomes so small. Your whole life becomes about you. How do I get up today? How do I get dressed today? How can I do anything for anyone else when I can barely get dressed? I thought I was alone in the world,” Laura says. “Then I met 20 other people just like me. One person was exactly like me. I thought, ‘Oh my god,
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it’s not just me. This is a good place to start’.”
Laura credits art therapy,
a medication adjustment and the camaraderie with other patients as being valuable pieces of her life- changing treatment at Silver Hill Hospital. While at the hospital, she developed the tools she needed to handle difficult situations and her illness; tools she still utilizes today.
“Silver Hill is a miracle, and I want everyone to know how wonderful it is. If sharing my story helps just one person get help at Silver Hill, it’s worth it.”
One’s outward disposition does not always reflect what is going on inside, Laura warns. She grew up with loving parents and a nice home in an upscale town in Fairfield County, Connecticut. She was a standout tennis player and got straight A’s in school. Yet she cried every night, and some mornings could not find the inner strength to get out of bed.
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currently writing her own show with the hopes of getting it on television.
“None of it would have happened without getting well, I can assure you of that,” she says. “I’m a successful writer now. It’s pretty wild.”
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Two months after being discharged from Silver Hill, Laura flew back to California, despite her parents’ wishes. She was let go from her job about a month later and returned to Connecticut where she continued to do outpatient therapy and worked as a framer for a photographer.
“I handled being fired well,” she says. “It was hard, but I didn’t cut or burn and didn’t compromise my sobriety. I didn’t have coping mechanisms before, at least not healthy ones. Silver Hill gave me the tools to use that when something goes wrong, it doesn’t derail me.”
In January 2007, with a solid foundation underneath her, she returned to California. She worked during the day and wrote at night. She got another job
in television, similar to the one that proved to be unbearable a few years prior and thrived. In 2013, she landed her dream job of becoming a full-time
Her advice to others feeling the same way is to get help, sooner rather than later.
“It does not get better on its own. That’s what I tell people. The bottom starts to fall out. It only gets worse if you don’t get help and work really hard for it,” Laura says. “There’s no shame in getting help. Why should I be ashamed that I took care of my mental health? There’s such a stigma. It’s brave to seek help.
“I want to tell people who are ill, who are white- knuckling it, that it’s going to get worse. Get help now while you can,” she adds. “Silver Hill is a miracle, and I want everyone to know how wonderful it is. If sharing my story
helps just one person get help at Silver Hill, it’s worth it.”
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