The Invisible Girl Samantha Houghton From the age of 11, I was riddled with social anxiety through to self-harming and school refusal. At 15, I was diagnosed with Chronic Depression and was subsequently prescribed anti-depressants. As I became desperate and suicidal, I begged for help from the educational psychology department.
“Then, a week before my 16th birthday, I was admitted to an adolescent psychiatric unit for 16 months” This had a huge impact on my life and that of my family. I was given therapies and medications but was moved no further forwards when I was discharged.
I struggled so deeply on so many levels - I felt like a misfit and totally alone in the world. I read self-help books and memoirs galore, frantically trying to figure myself out and find a solution. Expressive writing was an outlet of release for my tide of overwhelming emotions and stubborn obsessive thoughts.
“My twenties were chaos. With self-loathing and no selfesteem, holding down a job and any kind of a relationship was a challenge” I spent more time on psychiatric wards that provided me with nothing else but a hiding place. To help me cope with this tsunami of destruction, I fell victim to an eating disorder and befriended an enemy: Bulimia. With twelve years of binging and purging, weight and calorie addiction ensued… I stuffed myself on frozen food and ate out of a bin in desperate times. It was a living hell.
46 Together we Inspire
