I’m 21 years old, spiritually curious, mildly chaotic, deeply human, and currently trying to rebuild a stable life while living with severe PTSD, Bipolar I & II Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, ADHD, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder — which basically means my brain is simultaneously a philosophy lecture, an art project, a lightning storm, and a browser with 47 tabs open at all times. The severity of these conditions has genuinely impacted my ability to maintain traditional work consistency, emotional regulation, executive functioning, sleep stability, and nervous system balance, especially after experiencing two psychiatric hospitalizations since October 2025 and surviving a suicide attempt in December during one of the darkest periods of my life. For a long time, I felt like an emotional outlier in modern society — too introspective for fast-paced systems, too creative for rigid environments, too sensitive for survival-mode culture, and honestly just trying to learn how to exist without feeling spiritually misplaced all the time. But despite everything, something inside me still keeps choosing life, meaning, connection, curiosity, and future. Lately, I’ve finally started getting little fragments of joy, motivation, humor, creativity, spirituality, and genuine excitement for being alive back again — inconsistent? absolutely. Real? also absolutely. That’s why I’m asking for help now instead of waiting until everything completely collapses. My husband has been carrying almost all financial responsibilities while I continue trying to find work that fits both my abilities and my mental health limitations, and we are approaching a point where housing instability and overwhelming bills are becoming very real concerns. I'm someone who rages before they ever ask for help but the consistent struggle of not having the financial funds to eat most days, and reoccurring threats of losing my car from the car company I loaned my car through, not being able to pay my phone bill most months, at times having to delay my *cognitive, emotional and motor skills functionally required* medication management, prescribed by my psychiatrist, on its intended due dates for pickup just because I lack the money, and sometimes struggling to even pay rent... It takes a lot of honest humility to represent myself as someone who asks for help - but I've come to a realization that I need it. Just a few months ago I had a comfortable amount of savings, a 780 credit score, and general financial consistency. I was working 2 jobs for over a year and loved it until... Well, life happened. Even through all of this, I’ve continued building toward a future rooted in service and humanity: becoming a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT), Residential Direct Support Professional (DSP), Iowa Medication Manager certified, Heartsaver CPR/AED certified, legally ordained minister, completing extensive trauma-informed behavioral health & crisis intervention training, earning academic honors and scholarships in Behavioral Health Science, actively learning and pursuing Spanish as a second language, and creating an organization meant to share the living life-stories of others through an independently founded small-business, "The Human Record",— an archival documentary project built around preserving stories, healing, creativity, and emotional truth in a world that desperately needs more softness and sincerity... I truly believe some people are born, utterly not meant to fit neatly into systems; but more-so destined to build new systems from the faulty foundations themselves, just with more compassion inside them.
A huge part of my burnout came from constantly pouring myself into people-centered work while silently struggling to hold myself together behind the scenes. I worked in behavioral health, disability support, hospitality, crisis-oriented environments, community care, and emotionally demanding service roles because helping people genuinely mattered to me — honestly, for most of my life I believed my purpose was to “save the world” in some way, whether through therapy, advocacy, ministry, creativity, or emotional support. I was pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Health Science with an emphasis in Childhood and Adolescence Disorders while maintaining a 4.0 GPA, receiving scholarships, and dreaming of eventually opening a private therapy and healing-centered practice someday, but becoming newly married, fully residentially independent, financially overwhelmed, mentally unstable, and emotionally exhausted changed everything very quickly. There wasn’t some slow academic decline — I went from high achievement to simply being unable to continue carrying the weight of survival, work, personal trauma (while trying to guide others'), early adulthood, and severe mental illness all at once, and eventually I had to walk away entirely just to stay alive.
My relationship with mental health struggles is lifelong; my first psychiatric hospitalization was at age 12 for a week, and years later I survived an extreme domestic violence/domestic abuse-related near-death experience where I clinically died three times in one day and was gone for approximately 9 minutes total. Experiences like that permanently reshape the nervous system, perspective, identity, and understanding of life itself. Yet somehow, even after all of it, I still keep returning to the belief that human beings deserve loving intention, art, purpose, and resonating, raw connection with others and the world around me. Long before any certifications or degrees, I was already trying to help people however I could — as a bullied kid during my adolescent years, I created my very first advocacy page focused on anti-bullying awareness and would literally sit outside near my driveway holding a cardboard sign for hours asking people not for money, but simply to share the message so it could reach more hearts:
Dilleys Bully, 2015, Bailey Rain Lambert
That same part of me still exists now, just older, more tired, more introspectively reflective, and trying to rebuild life in a more natural, healthier, and more sustainable way. These days, my dreams have shifted away from becoming another hyper-independent, exhausted woman in high-burnout systems... and more toward creating long-lasting, meaningful, dually raw and honest work through ghostwriting, creating, leading & innovating different resources of service, humanitarian advocacy, and of course: projects like The Human Record.
I also wrote a children’s book dedicated to my sister called “The Star Who Remembered,” which was created as a reminder that even gentle souls who feel different still belong somewhere in this universe. This is apart of the work I truly aim to do: illustrating, narrating, and publishing children's stories that transcript adult language into innocent, childlike worldviews. I am a firm believer that your inner child never goes away - therefore I want to create an audience of all ages, whether that is to remind, reconnect, or realize:
The Star Who Remembered, 2025, Bailey Rain Lambert
I don’t believe my story is about failure; I think it’s about transformation, survival, and learning how to build a life that honors both humanity and healing instead of abandoning them.
The Human Record, 2026, Bailey Rain-Angel Chavez
This fundraiser is simply helping me survive long enough to continue building mine. If you feel moved to donate, share, pray, or support in any way, thank you for helping my life path and journey on continuing turning pain into purpose instead of disappearing beneath it.
Instead of giving my life away, why not give it to someone who wants to be apart of it?
Organizer
