Success Stories

Meet Jannett: A Bridge to Survival

It is easy to judge someone on the outside looking in. However, things are not always what they seem behind closed doors.

From an early age, Jannett experienced many forms of physical, mental and sexual abuse throughout her upbringing and in multiple foster homes. As she battled her way through the foster care system, occasional homeless shelters and her constant state of fear and vulnerability, no one truly knew what she was dealing with and how she felt inside. With most of her biological family and many foster families treating her as if she was nothing… she eventually started to believe it.

As Jannett got older and had a daughter of her own, she thought that the gnawing feeling of pain, distrust and shame from her past trauma would eventually fade away… but little did Jannett know that she couldn’t have been farther away from the truth…

Because she never sought professional mental health treatment to help her process her emotions that she shoved way deep down inside, Jannett developed a strained relationship with her daughter and grandchildren, along with a severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She still continues to have unwanted memories of her abusive past and experiences heightened reactions when confronted with aggressive situations that can lead to dangerous outcomes. Not only is she plagued with extreme mood swings, but she also experiences blackouts and numbness triggered by conflict and arguing. With Jannett’s detrimental past haunting her wherever she went, making it impossible for her to find any peace and comfortability, she finally decided that she wanted to take control of her own life for once.

Jannett got connected with Healing Bridges this past year after doing some research of her own, and she has never looked back. Currently, she attends weekly therapy sessions with Healing Bridges therapist Ben to help her manage her symptoms and explore the roots of her problems. She has also been recently prescribed medications by Healing Bridges Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Maddie to help improve her chances of long-term recovery and stabilize her mental and physical conditions.

Since regularly attending appointments, Jannett has noticed significant improvement in her quality of life. She has picked up hobbies and coping strategies like journaling, meditating, writing poems and potentially attending literacy classes to help break her cycle of dissociating and avoiding intense social interactions. With her new-found sense of strength, Jannett has even slowly enhanced her relationship with her daughter to where they can have in-person conversations and in-person visits with her grandchildren from time to time. She is now inspired by her past to continuously spread messages of kindness and positivity because she never felt loved or appreciated growing up.

“I have come a long way since the first time I stepped foot inside my first therapy session,” Jannett acknowledged. “I have seen progress that I have never seen before, and I don’t want to go back to being isolated ever again. I want to be there for my child and grandchild.”

With Jannett attending therapy and taking her medications regularly, she continues to slowly work toward healing and accepting that she is a survivor from her abusive childhood. She is finally starting to believe that she is deserving of relationships free of any kind of abuse, and she is glad that she found a safe support system in Healing Bridges to help her feel less trapped by what she thought defined her.

Jannett’s story is a real-life display of how treating unhealed trauma and prolonged stressors can cause even more extreme problems later in life. Even just one distressing event can lead to a world wind of consequences in a person’s lifetime such as panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts and feelings, drug/alcohol abuse, feelings of being isolated and not being able to complete daily tasks, etc.

The faster a person gets treated for their trauma, the less likely it will be passed down to future generations. You can help people like Jannett get connected to behavioral health treatment and avoid the harmful impact that can arise from not getting help sooner by donating to Healing Bridges and supporting our cause.