“Christians don’t have anxiety,” is what was being taught around me at the church I was attending at the time. Therefore, I didn’t feel like a real Christian. It produced shame which led to minimum prayers and reading my Bible less frequently. All I kept thinking was, “I can’t be a Christian and have anxiety.”

Vivian was surrounded by people who loved and adored her, but no one knew she was suffering from childhood trauma, or that she barely slept—sometimes going days without any sleep at all. Even her closest friends had no idea she was suffering in silence. Tragically, when the darkness pressed in and became too much she took her own precious life, and we lost her forever.