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Hotline counselors save deeply troubled
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Editor's note: The following is an article provided by Trident United Way (TUW).
“My life was like being in a really deep, dark pit, with no way out,”
remembers Donna Lynch about her decade-long struggle with bipolar
disorder, depression, agoraphobia and multiple suicide attempts. “I
just wanted to die.”
Lynch was in and out of mental hospitals so much that a nurse called
her to make sure she was still alive because she hadn’t been at the
hospital in three weeks.
What kept her alive? Great counselors at Berkeley County Mental Health
and the volunteers at 2-1-1 Hotline. “The first time I called 2-1-1, I
literally had the pills in my hand to kill myself. It felt like my
brain was melting. The counselor asked if I wanted to talk. I was
shocked that she cared,” Lynch recalls. “2-1-1 saved my life on several
occasions.”
Trident United Way’s 2-1-1 hotline is a free, confidential, 24-hour
service that helps nearly 50,000 people a year get the help they need.
What Lynch needed was often little more than someone to listen.
Eventually, she learned how to survive, then cope, then thrive.
Where once she was confined to her house for two full years, Lynch
today is employed fulltime at Berkeley County Mental Health helping
clients get their lives together. She is newly-married and for the
first time in her life, happy. And she wants to tell her story.
“I want everyone to know what 2-1-1 Hotline did for me. They could do the same for you,” she said.
MUSC employees, faculty and students can donate toTUW by visiting https://donor.united-e-way.org. The campaign code is MUSC; username is MUSC and the password is MUSC2008.
A drawing will be held each week to select a winner who has donated to TUW. Call 792-1973 for information.
Nov. 28, 2008
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