Charity Woodrum

So they sent me to a psych ward, but the next morning I had a meeting with the psychiatrist there or the psychologist, and I said, I can't be here.

There was nothing to do.

There were books, but I found that I couldn't even read.

I would try to read, and I couldn't even read.

It felt like I was reading the words, but I wasn't processing them, if that makes sense.

I've never tried to describe that before.

But yeah, I couldn't read the books.

And I was afraid to watch any TV because if a scene of the ocean would come up, I would have a panic attack.

And so that's what the first week looked like, basically.

So after being released from the hospital and the psych ward, there's no way I could have walked back into the house that I shared with Woody and Jason.

I went and stayed with close family.

And those first few weeks, I didn't leave the couch, really.

I would just lay there.

And laying on that couch, I really felt like I could feel the life going out of me.

Because there was nothing left for me, I felt like.

Yeah.

So I knew I had to do something and I knew that laying on that couch wasn't going to get me that desire to live back.

And I remember people close to me, they apparently had this group chat and they always made sure that one of them was at my house with me at any given time for those first few weeks.

And they knew that as a kid, I loved school and thought it would be a good distraction for me, I think.

And so they said, why don't you go back to school?