I have this friend who is hurting so deeply that no therapist, friend, or bar of chocolate is going to help her.

I don’t know what to do. In fact, her pain is so great that I find myself wanting to walk away from her.

I don’t like feeling this way, but it’s true.

It’s not that I don’t care.

It’s that I don’t know what to do, and her needs are too much for me.

Nothing can pull her out of this hole she is in.

No loving her with all I have will pull her out.

She has no clear sense of self.

She has stopped crying.

She just sits there, day after day, wanting loving parents.

She’s such a beautiful soul, and yet, her environment cut her down too many times that she stopped trying to get back up.

No words of encouragement or just being with her helps.

I don’t know what to do.

No mental health provider does either.

When she seeks help for her pain, they just label her as troubled and say she’s “manipulative” and “attention-seeking.”

She is neither.

You see, she wasn’t raised in a loving environment.

She had a very traumatic childhood.

She was never encouraged to flourish.

Now she spends her days alone, hitting her head against a wall, and thinking she is cursed.

To anyone with a similar friend, how are you helping them?

To mental health providers, why are people with childhood trauma who feel this way, and/or suicidal treated so poorly when they seek professional help?

To those with this wound, what helps you?

To the world, what do you wish were different about our mental health system?

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