“I am a survivor.”
With those words as an introduction, Ruby Sands jumps into her personal narrative, the story of how she fought through years marked by depression, self-harm, and self-doubt. Ruby doesn’t hesitate when asked to share her tale. She says with well-deserved pride: “My story is one of survival and success.”
Ruby can’t pinpoint when her mental outlook began to slide. Some time during her teenage years, for sure. But she can recount in detail the variety of services she received to help counter the increasingly ominous outlook she had on life: therapeutic mentoring, counseling, and suicide prevention, among others. She remembers clearly the several times she required hospitalization. And she especially recalls when the network of support she had built up over the years was at risk of being pulled out from under her.
