Dr. Tabatha Barber describes her middle school years marked by bullying, frenemies, and self-harm that led to suicidal thoughts. She reflects on the despair she felt as a vulnerable child and how she survived it.
Going into middle school, I started— that's just a difficult age for anyone, especially a girl. Going through middle school, having frenemies, getting bullied, started self-harming, and I was suicidal. I did not want to be alive. Like, it was just— I felt like— I felt like life handed me— I don't even want to say the wrong set of cards, but it was just like, this is my life. Like, I, I can't believe that this is— this is what my life has come to, that to the point where I was like, I just don't even want to be alive anymore. And I look at a 13-year-old in the face now and I'm like, you're so little. But that was me. I was like, I do not want to be here if this is what life has to offer me, like all these lemons that are being chucked at my face.
