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May 30, 2008 11:23 pm US/Central
Graduates Astound: Communicating On Mental Health
(WCCO)
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Holly Schwarzbauer from Eastview High School struggled with her own mental health problems, then used those skills to help others. Now she's headed to the College of St. Catherine to study nursing.
Kim Schwarzbauer
When you meet Holly Schwarzbauer, she seems to have it all together. The Eastview High School senior gets good grades, takes part in activities and volunteers in her community. But it wasn't always that way.
"When I was in ninth grade, I attempted suicide," said Holly. "And I was hospitalized for probably three months."
Why did she do it? Holly said there wasn't a specific reason.
"There was nothing bad in my life. I had good family. I had good friends," she said.
Holly had depression. Actually, it was bi-polar disorder. It took doctors months to get her diagnosis right.
"It's like depression," explained Holly, "Except you have moments of mania. It's like you're on top of the world, you think you can do anything. You just think you're somebody you're not. And you really don't think you have a problem."
When she was younger, Holly was a straight-A student. In eighth grade, things changed.
"I started getting Cs and Ds, and it just wasn't like myself," she recalled.
That's when she started cutting her right arm.
"It's just like a drug really," said Holly. "It can become an addiction. It got worse and worse, even though there really was nothing provoking it."
Returning to school in Apple Valley wasn't easy for Holly.
"I was actually more nervous coming after I came back from the hospital than I was on the first day of high school," she said.
Holly had reason to worry.
She could tell people were talking about her, so she decided to go public. Holly shared her mental health story with each of the sophomore wellness classes. Then she did it again and again for the next two years.
"She said it was really hard to go in the first time and share that," recalled counselor Julie Endersbe.
She says Holly's story has prompted others kids to get help.
"She's really found her voice in this cause," said Julie. "She's healthy, she's dealt with it, she'll continue to deal with it the rest of her life but she's figured out the balance."
Holly's also figured out how to succeed in school. The girl who missed 50 days now has a 3.7 GPA. Her case worker Mike Griffith considers Holly the biggest success story in his 23-year career.
"I really know that she's worked very, very hard to get to where she is today," said Griffith.
Her comeback is the reason Eastview counselors nominated Holly for the ACE award. ACE stands for Accepting the Challenge of Excellence. It's for students who overcome obstacles. Not only did Holly win her school's ACE award, but she also won the award at the district and state levels.
Holly still struggles, but by taking her medication, she's able to maintain her mental health. Whenever she starts to feel overwhelmed, she takes steps to keep her mood from spiraling down.
"You just have to stop and just take a break," she said. "And just calm yourself down and just put everything into perspective."
Holly will be heading to the College of St. Catherine this fall on a scholarship. She's going to study nursing. She hopes to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner and someday help people dealing with mental illness.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, you can get hope and help with one phone call. The National Suicide Prevention Line is staffed 24 hours a day. That number is 1-800-273-TALK, or visit
SAVE.org.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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