User blog comment:JoePlay/Wizarding World Giveaway/@comment-4143016-20110713151356

The Harry Potter series saved my life. It may sound dramatic, but it is 100% true. A few years back, my best friend took her own life. It was a huge mess, as her family didnt know how to cope with the loss and ended up blaming me for not being there for her. That alone was enough to scar me, but on top of it I was dealing with the loss of the only person who had ever really understood me. She had always been there, everyday for six years, and suddenly she was gone and I was being told it was my fault. A few other friends passed away around that time and I found myself drowning in my own depression. I felt like nobody cared or understood me, and most of all, I simply felt no desire to continue living. I was diagnosed with Manic Depression. I was put under suicide watch and locked in my room for weeks. While in there I made the best decision of my life. I picked up my heavily worn copy of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Harry Potter has been my favorite series since I was seven years old, but this time it was different. I wasn't just reading the book, I was actually jumping into the story headfirst leaving my real world and my depression behind. Since that day, Harry Potter has been my cure to all emotional set-backs. Within weeks I was taken off suicide watch, put back in school, and actually flourished for the first time on my life. Within a year I was meditating and practicing yoga and breathing and was taken off of medication. Within two years I didn't need to go to therapy anymore. And to this day, whenever something upsets me, I just pick up Harry Potter and let it whisk me away to another world while my brain calms down and starts thinking rationally again. People who meet me know don't even realize I have an emotional problem because I have been able to find a way to balance myself. This is what Harry Potter means to me; without it I would not be here anymore and I will never forget what Ms. Rowling has done for me. I am now known as The Harry Potter Girl instead of The Emotionally Unstable Girl and it is a title I wear proudly.