How to Recover from Depression: A Suicide Survivor's Story of Faith, Music, and Healing

In honor of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, Jeannine Rivers shares her powerful journey of living with depression since childhood, battling toxic voices, and finding strength through faith, self-love, and music.

In this candid conversation, Jeannine reflects on growing up in a restrictive religious environment, enduring verbal abuse, and discovering her gift of music. She opens up about how affirmations, prayer, and courage helped her quiet the toxic voices of self-doubt and begin to heal.

If you’ve ever wondered how to recover from depression or how to support a loved one, Jeannine’s story offers both honesty and hope: depression is not the end of the story, and healing is always possible.

Link to Jeannine's website: http://jeanninerivers.com/

Primary Topics Covered:

• Why Jeannine chose to share her story now, with courage and honesty
• Growing up with depression and the impact of childhood trauma
• How restrictive religious rules deepened her feelings of isolation
• Verbal abuse, racism, and the painful impact of toxic voices
• The role of music and performance as a source of joy and identity
• Using affirmations, prayer, and meditation to fight negative self-talk
• Building resilience and finding hope after depression and suicidal thoughts
• Suicide Prevention Awareness Month: why small acts of kindness matter

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro and World Suicide Prevention Day
 01:27 Why survivor stories matter: regret and the will to live
 02:13 Introduction to Jeannine Rivers
 03:05 Why she chose to speak out now with courage
 04:15 Growing up with depression and toxic voices
 05:35 Childhood dreams of music and performance
 06:20 Impact of Jehovah’s Witness restrictions on her identity
 07:23 Racism, verbal abuse, and painful self-doubt
 08:52 How prayer, meditation, and affirmations became coping tools
 09:51 Fighting back against toxic self-talk with self-love
 11:12 Reminders that affirmations are not “quick fixes” but part of healing
 11:46 Jeannine sings “Summertime” and shares its personal meaning
 14:12 Finding joy and resilience despite layers of pain
 14:25 National Suicide Prevention Day kindness challenge
 15:35 Closing reflections on gratitude, courage, and recovery

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