My name is Jenn, and I am a 36-year-old woman who has struggled with mental health issues my entire life.  I spent the better half of a decade in a dark cloud consumed by depression, anxiety, and negative thoughts.  Although I understood, to an extent, what was happening to me, it was almost as if I didn’t know that life should not be like that.  Life should not be a series of waking up sad, angry, nervous, looking for things to moan and complain about, etc.

Now I don’t look at myself as needing fixing, I was never broken to begin with.  I have spent the past 2 years in counseling at Life Focus Center working to address some of the traumas I have endured in my life and to study and learn my own self, body, and mind.  I cry as I write this because I feel like I have woken up from a very long nap.  Simple things that were once so difficult for me to accomplish are natural habits now.  Waking up, washing dishes, taking the trash out, cleaning up after myself, sticking to deadlines; all these things were once so very difficult for me to do.  When I say difficult, I mean there were weeks I would go without being productive because my mind told me that it didn’t matter.  I had convinced myself through all my trauma that this is how life is and will be forever.  It made me feel less than a normal person.  It was a never-ending cycle of forcing myself to do normal everyday things and then punishing myself for not doing enough or for not doing it “properly.”

I am finally in a place in my life when waking up is exciting again.  Even with everything happening in the world around us, through a pandemic, through the chaos I have been able to work day by day to find myself and build that foundation I need for my future.  Life is not perfect.  There are still battles and struggles.  Daily.  However, recognizing my trauma and now having the tools necessary to work on myself, on a daily basis, has changed the way I see life which in turn has changed the way I live it!

If you recognize yourself in any of the testimonial above, please reach out and get help.  We are here for you:  (626) 330-7990.