Digital media major Abigail Dickerson never had any issues with mental health as a kid, but she was diagnosed with ADHD at twelve years old. This affected her social life and academic life, and it started the process of her realizing that there was something deeper there. She started going to counseling at thirteen or fourteen, and this was scary as a young person. It wasn’t Christian counseling; she felt that she was being interrogated. “I’ve been to non-Christian and Christian counseling, and there’s a big difference,” she says. In Christian counseling, there are deeper questions, and this intentionality from someone made a huge difference in her life and helped her a lot.
Abigail was additionally diagnosed with anxiety at fifteen and depression a few years later. She found out that people were struggling with the same things and this gave her a lot of hope, but she went to a really small school so she didn’t have anyone who was like her to look to. She felt alone until she started to branch out and saw that it was a common thing. Yet, no one talked about it.
In her own life, her church and family were very understanding. She started working in ministry when she was sixteen, as she worked in the nursery at her church then. She states, “The more I was pouring into other people, the more I was listening to them instead of the voices inside my head.” Furthermore, she got into middles school ministry and was able to talk to girls about what they were going through. This gave her a lot of hope, knowing that there was hope for them and for her.
A Bible verse that helped her a lot, 2 Corinthians 12:9, says “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” She read this a lot in high school when people asked her why she was worrying so much. It helped her to know that, “Our weaknesses aren’t bad and don’t make us any less of a person. We all struggle with something. If it’s not mental health, it’s something else.”
A huge part of Abigail’s ministry later own down the road that was affected by mental health was when she worked at a Christian camp in high school. One counselor that discipled Abigail related to her more than anyone else ever had. Yet, the counselor got sent home due to having suicidal tendencies. This was heavy and scary to Abigail, and no one talked about it. Additionally, the staff told her not to reach out to her and that she didn’t need to hear from Abigail. Yet, the counselor did need people to reach out. The phase “Leave them alone, they’ll be okay” was a reality that Abigail was living in that she didn’t understand.
Another struggle that has affected Abigail’s life in ministry is the inability she saw to share her own story. Abigail, feeling equipped to disciple through her knowledge of the Bible and her own testimony with mental health, didn’t get the chance to step into various ministry opportunities because of her young age. When she was eleven or twelve, she couldn’t go on a mission trip because she wasn’t old enough. At the same camp she worked at in high school, only students who attended the Bible Institute could disciple students. Again at North Greenville University, she wasn’t able to disciple a little in the Big and Little program because she was a transfer student. A battle in her mind was the hard reality that, “God, I’m trying so hard to help people and it’s just not happening.” Time after time, doors kept getting “slammed in her face” and she “got shut down” on multiple opportunities.
In the opportunities she did have to minister, though, Abigail learned more form high schoolers than she did from adults. It is because of this that she wants to advocate for young peoples’ stories and sharing them. Through her own story and through the stories she has heard from others even in high school, she’s learned that everyone has something to share. She states, “We need to stop telling young people that they don’t have anything to offer.” In the midst of a world of mental health struggles, Abigail’s story is one that shows that advocacy and openness about mental health can empower others to find hope.