An Orchid Who Survived the Storm All my life, I have felt like an orchid in a field of daisies. The daisies were tougher, more capable of holding their own when a windstorm rolled through. As a child, I had outbursts of anger and aggression. Mood swings. One second I felt like the happiest girl…
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A New Approach to Relationships and Life When Andrea came to Skyland Trail, she was in a deep depression; she was hopeless. “After several hospitalizations, Skyland Trail was my last hope,” says Andrea. “If I was going to survive, this was going to be the place that did it, because I felt like I had…
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I Am More Than My Diagnosis My name is Aina, and this is my story. Growing up in my community, we ignored behaviors and people seen as “crazy.” Without nuance, anyone with an emotional or mental health issue was lumped into one category – an inhuman category labeled “it.”As in, “That’s it alright. That’s crazy,” when confronted with one…
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A Place to Start I took a surfing lesson this morning. I also took one back in 2008. The two lessons could not have been more different. The one back in 2008 was in Costa Rica and it was on a whim; I was following the crowd and was incredibly hungover to the point of being…
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I’ve regained my life. Four years after graduating from Skyland Trail, Tara shares how the skills she learned helped her establish independence and thrive. This spring of 2018, Arts in the Garden gave me the perfect excuse to drive to Atlanta for the weekend. It was wonderful to see my amazing staff again, as well…
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Learning to Live in the Moment “Fishing was among the first things I learned how to do with my father,” reflects Chad H. “And now when I am in the water, I think of only the best things that have been part of my life: my family − my mom and dad, my wife, my son, my…
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A Perfect Launching Pad for My Journey of Self Love I’m 27 years old. I have struggled for most of my adult life with major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety. Despite working in the field myself as a mental health professional, I found myself this past spring almost completely decompensated. I was having panic attacks…
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Back on Track I always knew what mental illness was, what it looked like and how it affected others by virtue of my family’s history of depression and bipolar disorder. In my early teens, I was aware that I was not in good emotional shape. I started looking for help when I was 13 and have struggled ever since trying…
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I am finally able to make peace with the idea that I am who I am “…[Skyland Trail] truly pushed my limits and made me into a much stronger and wiser person than I was three months ago.” When I came here I was an internal mess. I had been hospitalized twice in the past…
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A Better Life “The only reason I have the life I have now is because of what I learned at Skyland Trail.”
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