Live Free 999 encourages everyone to speak openly about mental health. We have created a space to share the stories sent to us from our audience to inspire others to share their own journeys, creating a virtual story-telling chain of community and support.
Notice: Some of the stories shared may contain topics that could be emotionally triggering to some members of our audience. Topics such as suicide, self-harm, substance abuse, and trauma are discussed.
Hello, my name is Maximus. Every day I’m battling suicide and substance abuse. I’ve been abusing drugs since I was in 5th grade and I’m now just trying to get my life on track. I’m 18 years old and it has really messed up my mind from weed, alcohol, pills and nicotine. Today I’m trying to get myself into rehab
Growing up, I lived with my mom, who struggled with many addictions. She was always with abusive men, even my dad who I watched from an early age physically abuse her. My dad was never in the picture, he would just come around when he wanted to. I used to look up to my dad, not knowing how bad he
Hey I’m Kai. I’m a teen from the UK. I’ve suffered from depression, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm for a while now. Juice WRLD’s music inspired me to keep going, and comforted me when I had bad days. In his words “I toss my pain with my wishes in a wishing well. Still no luck, but oh well. I still try
I’m 25, I remember being a sad kid and I was really alone. When I was 13 I started having panic attacks. I’ve been on medication for depression and anxiety since i was 17. I’ve always been really intense with my feelings. I never knew how to deal with all my bad feelings and bad thoughts… I gave up a
My name is James, and I’m a recovering heroin addict. I spent many of my years in active addiction, using many different drugs. However, once I tried heroin everything else stopped. My main focus was getting high to numb the pain, help with my depression, and to feel normal. I ended up having a beautiful little girl, and have spent
Throughout my 17 years of life, I’ve dealt with so much, whether it’s my abusive stepfather laying hands on my mother, My 2 younger brothers and I all going through kidney cancer due to a genetic trait, my biological father becoming mentally ill, heartbreaks, going from an AP Student to a dropout. It has all torn me up, and sometimes
I’m Italian and from Venice. Whoever is reading this I hope that you have a wonderful day and a beautiful life. You are the best flower in this wrld. The reason that I’m here now is to tell you about a period where I had depression and I fought very hard to get out of it. I was lonely, I
From a very young age I could always remember my parents being alcoholics and drug addicts. I remember being 3 years old running away from cops, and watching my parents fight, scream, and yell at each other. This caused me to have many problems through my life. At 3 years old I was diagnosed with PTSD. I remember being ripped
As a kid I’ve always had things going on with my family. My biggest downhill was when I got into my freshman year of high school. I have always done terrible in school, but this was a whole different level. I was getting F’s in all my classes I was going through a lot. I put a lot of stress
Experiencing a crisis? Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988
or Text the Crisis Text Line by Texting “LF999” to 741741.
