Heleema was born into a faithful home, attended a Christian school and went to church every Sunday. But when she was in seventeen-years-old she started to struggle with mental health issues. “I had high hopes to study medicine and become school captain but then I started struggling with depression and anxiety.” After being diagnosed, she struggled with panic attacks, intense thoughts and self-destructive behaviour. This landed her in various hospitals and psych wards. “I was taking up to ten pills a day…I had been to a lot of psychologists and started doing really intense therapy.” But nothing worked. “I got to a point where I just had no hope. I didn’t see a future for my life.”

Three years later, Heleema was locked in a psych ward after she had run away from the previous hospital. “It was in this ward in a very bland room with none of my belongings that I just cried out to God. I was like I can’t do this.” Previously, she had been so angry with God and questioned why He created her. But she realised that only God could help get her through this.

In that moment she fully surrendered to God and dedicated her life to him. “So from the next day, I started doing things knowing that I was created for a purpose. I started doing things standing on God’s truth and not the lies I constantly heard in my head.” Every time she felt like she wasn’t good enough she would declare that God did create her for a purpose. Eventually, she was able to come off her medications and was released from the psych ward. “That’s really where I saw my life completely transformed.”

“Just swapping out some of the patterns of thinking that you have and intentionally replacing them with God’s truth. I would write it on some cards and carry it around with me or on my phone wallpaper…That’s how I started to see my thinking and my headspace go from darkness into a beautiful light.”

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