Rachel Ulfers

Rachel Ulfers is thirteen years old and attends Buffalo Community Middle School. She has anxiety and depression and was recently diagnosed with scoliosis. She also has an “A” average in the classroom and long-range plans to go to college.

An early manifestation of Rachel’s anxiety and depression surfaced after her grandfather died in 2001 and she was left crying in front of the classroom. “The school did not know what to do to help me,” she recalls. “I have struggled with it since then.”

There are newer challenges as well. “Now I have scoliosis and people are teasing me,” she says. “I have some trouble sticking up for myself. The counselor is going to help me say some things that will help me stop the teasing. She is also going to start a girls group, so I can talk about my anxiety and learn some skills to assert myself.”

Like anyone who has a mental health and learning disability, Rachel has keen abilities as well. “I think I read people really well,” she says. “When my friends go through something and they’re anxious or they’re worried, I know how it feels. I can say to them, ‘I can relate to you. I can help you with it.’”

How does Rachel help people understand her? “You have to explain to them, ‘This is what I need’ and ‘This is where you have to help me.’ You have to tell people that [a mental health or learning disability] doesn’t make you different than anyone else; you just have something else you have to deal with.”