On February 8, 2025, we received an emergency phone call from our son Zadok who was in serious distress. He was attending Chapman University in Orange, CA on a flute scholarship. He was majoring in flute performance with a minor in musical composition when he suddenly fell into a severe depression that needed immediate medical attention. His depression was so severe that we drove to California that night, picked him up, packed up his belongings, and brought him home several days later to keep him safe.

Upon arriving home from California, we immediately had him see a psychiatrist who tried him on different combinations of depression medications. Zadok also tried ketamine and traditional psychotherapy with no immediate results. We were hopeful that we would eventually find the right medications and therapies to treat him; however, through all of this trial and error, our son was hanging onto life by a thread---not wanting to live another day with debilitating depression, feeling hopeless and miserable! It took everything out of us to keep him here, keep him alive, and all the while keep our sanity, until we could get him the help he needed.

We spent the next 3 months trying to figure out how to help him get out of this profound depression. He was mostly non-verbal while experiencing deep sadness, hopelessness, low energy, no appetite, and ongoing suicidal thoughts. It was incredibly heartbreaking and also terrifying to witness our son, who was previously happy, energetic, motivated, loving, and creative, become an entirely different person. It broke our hearts to have to sit back and watch him suffer without knowing how to help him.

After months with no signs of him getting better, we started looking into treatment programs. We knew that wilderness treatment could possibly help our son; however, we also knew that the expense alone would take a huge financial toll on our family. However, knowing this was one of our only hopes for our son to get better, we took out a loan from the bank to pay for it. We had faith that we were doing the right thing, despite the cost of the program. We had faith that, with God’s help, we would be okay despite the financial hardship on our family.

On April 25, 2025, Zadok checked into Anasazi Foundation, a wilderness treatment program in Arizona for youth and adults. Needless to say, Anasazi worked its healing magic on our son and just a couple of weeks into the program, his depression lifted, his appetite came back, his energy and excitement for life returned, his hope was restored, and he was able to come back to his normal self again! Anasazi Foundation was EXACTLY what our son needed to get back on his feet and start moving forward towards a path of lifelong healing. Furthermore, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is something he will have to deal with his entire life, but we’re so glad that he has the answers now to move forward. We are so happy to have our son back.

*If you know Zadok, he has struggled with social anxieties and Asperger's syndrome his entire life, yet it hasn’t stopped him from having the biggest heart and brightest countenance. To know him is to absolutely love him!!

As Zadok is getting ready to go back to college in February (almost one year since he got sick), we are hoping to lift some of the financial burden from paying back this loan. We want to be able to pay the wilderness therapy debt we owe so that we may be able to continue to financially support our family, send Zadok back to college, and contnue on the path to recovery.

We truly appreciate any support you are giving. We know many people are under financial stress, so please know that we are grateful for any tiny amount or even prayers that our son will have a smooth and peaceful transition back to college.

Love and Aloha, the Jacksons