When you hit rock bottom, you have nowhere to go but up.

I went through a lot of abuse and a lot of really difficult things growing up - depression, anxiety, attempted suicide.

When you get knocked down you get knocked down in Round 1 of life, there's Round 2.

Getting into my teen years, I was filled with so much shame and pain that I got really involved with drugs and alcohol. I was hanging out with the wrong people and getting involved in the wrong relationships and everything just sort of spun out of control.

I really want to help people. I really want to give somebody that hope that they need to keep going.

Oh my God ... YOU are real. Oh my God ... You ARE real. OH MY GOD ... You are REAL! Oh my God ... You're really real!

My dad abandoned me when I was about two years old. So, he wasn't around to protect me the way I needed to be protected. I started getting sexually abused from the time I was about five years old to the time I was ten. It really messed with my sense of self worth and my sense of all that was good with the world, almost.