Overcoming Depression

Overcoming Depression

Kaelynn Clolinger is a dual degree Arts & Design and Civil Engineering undergraduate student who is active and deeply involved in various organizations at the University of Michigan. She would not be who she is today, however, without having faced the obstacle of bullying and the depression it brought. This is the story of how she overcame that challenge.

>> Have you ever heard the statement that
you can feel alone even when you're surrounded by so many people it was kind of like that. Even though
I had people around to talk to every day I didn't really feel like I
had anybody that I could personally open up and relate to. I grew up in Chesaning, Michigan, but I went to school in a nearby village, a really small town. My graduating class
was 52 students. Everybody knows everybody. It was kind of a catch 22.
It was nice because you knew everybody, but at the same time it was bad because
you knew everybody. So if you weren't particularly liked or if there was a rumor going around
everybody knew about it in literally half an hour.
I don't remember when it started but I do remember being
in the thick of it. I just felt really down about myself and I didn't
like going to school, and when I went home, I'd want to be at
school and vice versa. People would make fun of my appearance,
the way I looked, the way I acted. I would get excluded from events. I lost interest in all of my favorite
activities. I really just wanted to be accepted, and I wasn't getting that from my peers and
so I felt like something was missing or something was
wrong with me. There'd be some days where I would just say, you know, I have to go bathroom and I'd
just leave school for the day and go somewhere. Why bother about my grades, why are
they important? And so I just kinda let them slip to the wayside. The hardest part about dealing with
bullying and depression and things like that was I
never really told anybody. So my parents were completely
in the dark about it until my senior year of high
school, and I kinda just kept it inside, and looking back it was a very bad idea because I really could have done
something about it but I just kinda let it happen to me. And I just remember getting really angry
about it. I was like, I'm so sick of this. I
don't want to do this anymore. I need to change this. I talked to my parents about it and I went
to counseling and things like that and I improved, a lot. I realize that I do have a choice of how I make myself feel and it
wasn't necessarily what my peers think of me but what I think
myself and once I figured that I was like, I have, it gave me this ability to do something about it because,
you know, it's my problem now The summer before I came here I decided to do a summer program to kinda get to know people because I
wasn't going to be that same person I was in high school. I was going to be
outgoing. I was going to be what I really felt like I was
supposed to be. And I got here and, oh my gosh,
it was amazing! And I had friends, and I was really interested in what I was
studying, and things were just amazing. It's been great since. Engineering is
really what I love to do it's about solving problems it's about
thinking in new ways. So, I'm involved in a couple of
student organizations. I do the American Society of Civil
Engineers – I'm on the board for that. I'm also an Chi Epsilon, which is the
civil engineering honor society. I do Alternative
Spring Break, and I'm taking a group out to
Baltimore in March. I'm working on a video game with computer science students, I am
their concept development artist and I've been working on that and we're almost done, so things are going
good with that. The best thing to do is to really just advocate that it is okay to have depression because
when I was in it I just, I felt like something was wrong with me and I could't
share that with anybody. If you have parents and family, it's
a support system, and you should take advantage of something like
that, you know. You shouldn't be ashamed that things aren't necessarily going the
way you want them to. And I think if I had chosen to not do anything about it, to
stay a victim in my depression, I would not be here today.

#Overcoming #Depression

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@john-o2e6h 1 November 2025 at 12:30

Loneliness is a huge problem and when you are clinically depressed you dont want to be around people 😢
@killyourtelevision999 1 November 2025 at 12:30

I am very sorry that anyone would endure depression and I sincerely wish this woman well. It is indeed a hellish existence and I wish her 100% cure.

On the other hand, it's hard to feel sorry for a woman who attends a premier university in the US and has the ability to do engineering. Some expression of gratitude would be nice.
@kevinprizy2446 1 November 2025 at 12:30

Her story is almost like mine
@Callummullans 1 November 2025 at 12:30

We effect our mood by our attitude.
@davidbayer9714 1 November 2025 at 12:30

Yes melody and myself are bullied every place we visit we are not suicidal but we are depressed and we are going to cry with Neil tonight and embrace hours of tears
@Curiousandfearless 1 November 2025 at 12:30

It's important to remember that she LEARNED she had choices, so she made choices. But the fact that this can be learned isn't known or shared by enough people. When I was young and chronically depressed, I believed that only certain kinds of people could learn that :). But anyone can learn it and learn how to get help. And at 82, let me just toss in here that all that pain I went through ultimately led to my later life being interesting and enriching. And I never expected old age to be so interesting and rewarding!! So keep trying no matter what.
@RomRivas 1 November 2025 at 12:30

God bless, everyone with any kind of depression and Anxiety.🙏
@sunriselotus 1 November 2025 at 12:30

I really dislike how this video and the entire rhetoric of America and the US education and health care system works to put the whole load on the human being, the person, the child, the student, the worker, the patient, to actively seek help when he or she is sick and needs help. The motto is that the person is hurt, injured, sad, struggling from an illness and disease and it is THEIR responsibility to actively seek help…i thinks this is just so awful because if anyone who has mental illness or a physical illness of any kind should know how debilitating this is and all the entire US health care system wants to do is dump the entire responsibility of taking care of patients is the PATIENTS themselves. A person will have to do so much advocacy on their own to get the optimal live they deserve. I am living in the US for a while and I am just figuring out how obscure and belittling this society is. No American society is not perfect, and each aspect is a money profiting scheme and this needs to be fixed fast.
@myal7532 1 November 2025 at 12:30

such a beautiful and bright young woman.