I looked in the mirror and didn't see myself - I saw a fat ugly person. That scared me!

I wasn't seeing myself I was seeing a totally different person.

I called Kids Helpline. At first I was nervous but then the counsellor helped me and now I just accept myself for who I am - a confident beautiful young woman.

My best friend had just had a serious car accident and was fighting for her life. My brother was told he had caner. I was struggling with depression and anxiety. I was self-harming and suicidal. I attempted suicide not long after. Then I called Kids Helpline - they were great.

When my father passed away, I was very depressed. I called Kids Helpline and started crying about my Dad. I spoke with three lovely counsellors that where nice. Now I'm 15 years old and I don't ring up as much.

Thank you Kids Helpline.

I mean sure, everyone has mood swings and hormonal moods. But I knew mine weren't just my hormones. One week I'd be extremely low and contemplating suicide. I didn't see a better life ahead. I had made many attempts to end my life because I was so low.

I'd have my normal days where I could just relax and sleep was normal. I'd focus moderately better and my behaviour was heaps better.

I would constantly argue with my Mum & her husband about small silly things. I would often cry myself to sleep knowing the next day would be the same drama, different day. It sucked a lot. I felt like I had no one to turn to, no one to talk to, no one to trust. Basically I had no one. I counted down the days until I turned 18 so I was an adult & no one could boss me around. I longed for that day but it seemed so far away. Just when I thought things were going to be fine, things went downhill again.

I finally got the courage to go on web counselling at Kids Helpline and then I was encouraged to call them. So I did. It was hard at first but then it got easy. My counsellor asked what had been going on for me and it took a while for me to tell her but I got there in the end. I told her that I had been sexually assaulted by a couple of people, but the main person was my ex-best friend.

After a while it all got out of control. Eventually I made things worse for myself because I was getting so drunk I had no control over what I was doing. I was making mistakes that made me feel worse about myself. My silly solution to make things better and give me confidence to handle social situations was to drink more. Everyone began to know me as a 'party animal’, and 'getting messy' was my thing. Of course the drinking didn't fix anything and when my problems remained I got even more down on myself.

I went on a diet but it soon turned horribly wrong. I stopped eating around others and I started to restrict everything that I ate. I started to feel really bad and only ate dinner each day even though I was doing so much exercise with my Irish dancing, gymnastics and school work.

I then had to move schools and that was so sad as I had to leave my good friends. I am a very shy person - it was so hard for me to make new friends at the new school. This added to the stress in my life and my eating went from bad to worse. We had to do an assignment at school on eating disorders.