Survivors // Kate Radley

I started seeking treatment mainly because I was just so depressed and didn’t know what was going on. I got a therapist, and that was when the hospitalizations started happening for suicidal ideation and (suicide) attempts.

I turned to writing when I was in eating disorder treatment. I started taking my journal entries from when I was so low and turning them into poems. I feel like my poetry helps me to tell my story in the most authentic way I can. Because when I write it down in an artistic way, I feel like it just doesn’t have the same sting that it did before.

A lot of times, the people who bring stigma don’t understand the traumas that bring people into dark places. That’s what keeps me talking about it, is that trauma wants you to remain silent and keep things in the dark.

The best advice I can give is to keep going and never to give up on yourself. Don’t give up just because it isn’t getting better. It might seem like it’s never going to get better, but it’s going to eventually. That glimmer of hope, that glimmer of light, it’s going to come. You just don’t know.