I would like to welcome you to the journey of my life. I will share the trials and tribulations that I've had to endure throughout my lifetime to become who I am and what I understand about mental illness and its effects today. I'm in no way defeated. If anything, I'm a more determined person with a deep understanding of life, physical illness, mental illness, depression, and so on. Each passage in this book is a recollection of my view of the events described (which is the whole point). It is, however, all true from my point of view, and the effects it has had on me along the way and how I have overcome them are real. My aim, hope, and reasoning for sharing my life story is to give other people a way of helping themselves through their own problems and troubles. I hope I will be able to show and give you, the reader, the ability to look at your own life as a whole and to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and then be able to deal with whatever is causing your troubles. I believe that we are shaped into who we are from the day we are born and affected by life experiences along the way. If we have the insight to look back at our life, we can then start to see a pattern and determine where we have gone wrong or why we are the way we are. I truly believe after you have read this book, you will have hope and be-lief that you can help yourself and that there is light at the end of the tunnel regardless of how bad your situation may be or how you feel at the time.