Tanzania Bennett is a 21-year-old from East Oakland. She is a mother of 2 children. She has experienced mental health issues since 8 years old. Her first experience with depression and anxiety occurred when her family went through a divorce and custody battle. Both sides of her family suffer from suicide, severe depression, anxiety, and addiction.

One of Tanzania’s worst experiences with depression was when she had her first child at 16 and dealt with postpartum depression. Every day she felt a lack of motivation to carry out daily activities such as getting out of bed and cleaning her room. She began experiencing loneliness and became easily irritated. She was surviving off of cannabis and water. Tanzania began putting her attention towards finishing school and her social life leading to her not being an attentive mother.

After she finished school, Tanzania was able to attend to her child and work on herself. This experience has been quite the journey and she hasn’t really gotten past it. Now she works to remind herself that these negative feelings are temporary. She believes that “…we all find light out of the darkness we just have to keep searching in what makes us happy what makes us feel good.” She learned how to be alone but not isolate herself from the people she loves and cares for. Consistency is key and keep doing something that makes you happy. It becomes a healthy habit.

Tanzania hasn’t from her experiences but she is proud of where she came from and is able to find things that make her happy and the healing and recovery process that make it a little easier. She is ready for the journey and can’t wait to see the woman that God will make her to be. Always have faith that you can make it out of the storm because you can! Don’t give up on yourself.