{"id":3980,"date":"2014-04-28T11:41:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T19:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/?p=3980"},"modified":"2024-03-01T15:40:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T21:40:32","slug":"happiness-life-on-the-other-side-of-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/testimonials\/happiness-life-on-the-other-side-of-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness: Life on the Other Side of Pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OPIS.A. is 24 and came to the Optimum Performance Institute In August of 2013 after her fourth suicide attempt since the age of eighteen. Her most recent in-patient Clinic recommended she come to OPI as many of their patients had experienced positive long-term recoveries from their time at OPI.<\/em><\/p>\n

A lot can change in a year. S.A is optimistic and her voice upbeat. Most would find it hard to imagine that this enthusiastic young woman has spent years battling depression. \u201cI came to OPI because I had many suicide attempts\u2026 The last one was\u2026\u201d She takes a breath. \u201cIt was just a really serious attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n

TRIGGER WARNING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last May, she drove her car away from her friend\u2019s place in Tuscan, Arizona and methodically went through her suicide plan<\/a>. She had visited her friend, hoping he would cheer her up. And when that didn\u2019t work, she felt there was no hope of feeling better. \u201cThat\u2019s when the plan really went into action.\u201d<\/p>\n

She parked on an anonymous street of a city far from home. \u201cI turned my car into a death trap. I took a long plastic hose that I bought at Home Depot. I attached it to my exhaust pipe, and put the other end through the driver window and taped it up and started the car. I only survived because someone drove by and saw what was happening. I didn\u2019t stop it. The police and the fire department had to break into my car to get me out of it.\u00a0 I was just…\u201d she pauses.\u201d And that\u2019s why I have been in such a long and detailed recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

TRIGGER WARNING END<\/strong><\/p>\n

The experience was a wake-up call for S.A. and her parents and they decided they would go to any length to ensure S.A.\u2019s wellness.\u00a0 \u201cI had tried every kind of treatment including Electric Shock Therapy. It was pretty hard-core\u2026 I had been going to therapy.\u00a0 Even when I was able to stabilize, I would fall into the pit of depression<\/a> over and over.\u00a0 So at OPI I was trying to build a skillset that I could use to keep from falling into that pit again.\u201d<\/p>\n

And OPI has done just that. S.A. believes OPI\u2019s integrated and holistic approach has made all of the difference. She has a life coach<\/a>, a therapist, a nutritionist, and they all work closely together.\u00a0 \u201c(They) all communicate with each other. We make plans together and really coordinate things, which (has) made my progress really last. And it has really made it strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s been some pretty dramatic progress. Today S.A. is getting treatment for her eating disorder<\/a>. She\u2019s learning to cook. She\u2019s taking classes at a nearby university. She has come out of the closet with her parents. She has made friends and explored the LGBT community in Los Angeles. She has a girlfriend. She takes Zumba. \u201cWorking with the team, I started to learn there is more to life than studying all the time. And branching out I learned\u2014there are things that make me happy like music and singing and piano… And (I learned) to make them part of my goal, of just being happier. Today happiness is a top priority.<\/p>\n

And not every moment is easy. Yesterday, S.A. felt sad. But today she has tools for dealing with depression. She texted Emily, her therapist, \u201dI\u2019m having a hard time.\u201d She realized she was feeling scared and stressed and took a moment to acknowledge the feelings. And then her therapist directed her to do her \u201cself-care.\u201d It\u2019s a customized plan that she and her therapist have worked on for the moments when she feels down. \u201cI went on the treadmill for half an hour and then did some random interpretive dance… And then I did some comedy therapy, which for me is watching an episode of the Colbert Report \u2026 and I made myself a nice dinner. And then I wrote back to Emily that I was feeling so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this is a new skillset. And as she noted, this particular routine wouldn\u2019t work for everyone. It is one she and her therapist have worked on by trial and error. There were plenty of things that didn\u2019t work. For example, saying positive statements felt phony. S.A. and her therapist have turned feeling good into a science.<\/p>\n

Today S.A. lives near OPI as she continues to receive outpatient support through the Intensive Outpatient Program<\/a>. \u201cI plan to stay in California. I plan to keep going with school. I hope someday to be a therapist myself. And I feel like I have had at least a tiny bit of experience with that world, so I\u2019d like to share what I\u2019ve learned with other people and help others.\u201d She\u2019s refined what kind of psychology she wants practice. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to do clinical or experimental psychology— and now I just know that I want to work with people because I think I would be the most help that way. Because that\u2019s the most help I got with Emily my therapist and Missy, my life coach and working with them one-on-one is how I made the most progress. I want to help other people make progress that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot can change in a year. And S.A. doesn\u2019t want fast change. She wants the kind of change that comes slow and sticks around– the kind of change that comes from burning your food, and making dishes that taste bad, and playing with the ingredients until you get the recipe right. S.A. talks about her friends and classes, and all of a sudden I recognize the tone of S.A.\u2019s voice. It\u2019s the tone of happiness. Happiness can\u2019t be faked. And S.A. is happy. It doesn\u2019t mean she doesn\u2019t feel pain. She\u2019s felt pain and she will feel it again. But today she knows that there is something on the other side of pain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S.A. is 24 and came to the Optimum Performance Institute In August of 2013 after her fourth suicide attempt since the age of eighteen. Her most recent in-patient Clinic recommended she come to OPI as many of their patients had experienced positive long-term recoveries from their time at OPI. A lot can change in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[31,57,60,21,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10142,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions\/10142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.optimumperformanceinstitute.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}