LET’S BE REAL | PORTRAIT SERIES

Social media gets a bad rep for people being fake and inauthentic — only posting a heavily edited, “perfect” version of themselves. I created a space for people to be their most authentic selves, to be vulnerable in sharing their story. Mental illness is an epidemic in the world right now and many people live with it in silence. I am breaking the silence in hopes of creating a community for people to know they are not alone. Below are a few of their stories.

Do you have a story you want to share? Feel free to share it with us here!

Presley Townsend

“In college I found myself in treatment for an eating disorder. I fought through the process and when I graduated I thought I had thrown that part of me away permanently.

After treatment I really found my voice and passion in advocating for mental health and specifically recovery. I shared my story publicly and dove headfirst into cheering people on because I truly thought I had fought my demons and won.

Fast forward to the pandemic when I found myself back in treatment. The experience was humbling, shame-filled, and overall silencing because I realized my disorder was something that I didn’t just beat and move on from. I didn’t want to share that I had stumbled or was seeking help again because it felt like I had lost the battle.

The hardest pill to swallow was realizing that this piece of me was something that I would carry into being a friend, a girlfriend, and eventually a wife and a mom. I didn’t just fight it once and put it to bed- it’s something I fight every day. Honestly, it’s something I fight every meal.

I’ve spent a lot of time asking God why this has to be my story, and He answers every time in the most quiet and graceful way; a reminder that the battle is so much bigger than me. The answers come through conversations at the nail salon, messages on social media, or coffee dates with women I don’t even know.

It’s my story, but it’s for His glory. It’s the opportunity to walk alongside someone who isn’t in the same place as me. It’s God using me to shout from the rooftops that shame is a liar.”

Ryan Smith

“Anxiety has impacted my life for many years. It got to be too much to handle during 2020. I decided then to take my life back. I reached out for help, started counseling and started working out again. I now feel like, with the help of friends and family, I am finally able to find relief.”

Ruthie Mason

“My name is Ruthie, and this is my story of beginning to process my mental health journey…

It was a regular Friday night for me. I was driving home from my boyfriend’s house and taking my usual route when a pair of headlights came over a hill and around a curve. In a split second, I had a moment of recognition… they weren’t in the lane they were supposed to be. Almost as soon as I saw them, they collided with my car.

In June 2021, I was hit head-on by a drunk driver who was going over 90 miles per hour. I’ll spare you the details of being trapped in my car with no one coming to help me, the long and grueling hours spent in the Vanderbilt trauma unit and even the details of the eight weeks of forced bed rest to follow. It was not a pretty picture.

More than my body was shattered in that wreck. I lost so much time, so much dignity, so much security, so much faith in humanity. The grief that I felt was immeasurable. And, I began experiencing debilitating panic attacks as well as meeting every criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

I am newer than many to recognizing my mental health journey. I’ve recently begun seeing a mental health professional, and I’ve begun talking to Jesus in ways that I hadn’t previously. Some days He feels so near, and other days I find myself angry, hurt and confused about what happened and why He feels so far from me.

I wish I could tell you that this is a sweet little story perfectly wrapped up with a little bow, but I so often find that life is much more complex than that. So, to be very real, I’m still in a place of wrestling. A place of anger, hurt, grief, vulnerability, and some other emotions that I’m still learning to recognize. But, I’m learning to draw nearer to God, I’m learning that vulnerability isn’t weakness, I’m learning how to forgive, and I’m learning to pick up the pieces and find myself again.”