"My name is Gena Rhodes and here is my story. I hope this can be inspiring to someone out there struggling with Anxiety and Depression. As a young girl growing up on a farm I was raised on the value that family and friends were more important than anything. We were not rich at all, but life was good. We grew our own food, raised catfish, and wore hand-me-down clothes, but we had a tomato business as my Daddy was one of the first tomato farmers on Chandler Mountain. I was a Daddy’s girl so I learned at an early age to drive tractors and then a truck at age 11. Then a little later Daddy decided it was time for me to learn how to drive a stick shift. I will always cherish those times and remember them with extreme love in my heart because Daddy is no longer here. He became sick with heart disease in 1984, which, in turn, caused me to drop out of school. He passed the following year. My best friend was no longer here to see me graduate, to walk me down the isle, or to see his grandchildren. This was a dark time for me. I started having anxiety and then deep depression. I even contemplated suicide. Then it hit me; Daddy wouldn’t want me to be this way. So I decided to step up and start working toward making him proud of me. I started back to school the following year, graduated, and then later went to college. Then came marriage, a son, good jobs, and furthering my education. I became a part-time instructor at our local community college while also working a great full-time job. I have had situations over the past years that have caused the depression to show it’s ugly self and I still struggle with anxiety of some type on almost a daily basis. Although I was fortunate enough to never have to commit to psychiatric help, I have occasionally had to talk to someone. Whether it was a pastor, a friend, my general doctor, my mother, my husband, my son, and most importantly God; I shared and they cared. You see, no matter how hard things become in life, there is always a caring soul out there to help in time of need...to lift a troubled heart. Yes, there is clinical help available, but sometimes you just need a shoulder to lean on. So, if you ever find yourself down and out and needing that shoulder, please just ask for it. I did". - Gena Rhodes
