Lisa Ricci never thought she’d get to see her 30th birthday.
“If I got a flat tire, my response was, 'I got a flat tire. I'm just going to kill myself,'" she said. "That's not a normal reaction, and I didn't realize that at the time.”
She struggled with mental illness ever since she was a little girl.
“Sixth grade was really the point where I can say, 'yes, I've had mental health issues,'" she said.
But through multiple hospitalizations, there was one person who served as the inspiration: her baby niece.
“This gets me emotional every time I talk about it," Ricci said. "Norah was the reason I lived. For a period of time, I had nothing else that I could see or value in my life, but this little girl that wasn't even born yet.”
Ricci is now 38 and serving as an inspiration to others. She works as a peer advocate and mentor for the mental health advocacy group People USA, connecting folks with services and letting them know that it does get better. She knows that firsthand.
“If I can help them learn a lesson, or help them with resources that I didn't have, or experiences that I didn't have, that is just what I love to do," Ricci said.
Her work has also taken her to Westchester Medical Center’s Mid-Hudson Hospital. There, she works with mental health patients, leading groups and assisting them with how they can get on the path to recovery.
Psychiatrist Dr. Rebecca Ackerman-Raphael, who works alongside Ricci, said having a mentor to help someone in the recovery process makes a huge difference.
“It’s like you can see yourself in that role, in a way, that you can’t necessarily connect with a professional who a patient might assume doesn’t have the same experience," Ackerman-Raphael said.
Ricci’s niece will turn 13 this year, and she’ll be there to celebrate that birthday with the girl who helped save her life.
“It's so surreal that this little girl doesn't even know that she was the reason that I lived for months," she said. "And to see her grow up into this young woman is just it's incredible. It really is.”