My name is Debb Pitel, wife of 31 years to Kevin and mother to four sons. My journey or life experience hasn’t always had a name. There was feeling overwhelmed, being emotional, there were struggles and at times, it all seemed too much to handle. Not all life lessons are taught; in my case, they were learned through experiences.  Countless times, I just needed to talk to someone whom I thought wouldn’t judge me, but instead, I remained silent.

When my son Tyler began to struggle, we knew very quickly we needed help. Back 20 years ago, resources were called agencies. The stigma was strong in asking for help and STILL IS. Asking for help was interpreted as weak but there we were, doing our best to fight to navigate the resources. This was long before the internet expanded as we know today.  Finding answers was difficult, time consuming and added stress to a difficult time. Abruptly, our search ended when Tyler died by suicide on August 6^th 2001, two months before his 16^th birthday.

After 10 years of grieving this loss while trying to continue my roles as mother and wife, I became an advocate for mental health.  I was learning, listening, fundraising, and supporting all I could while desperate to change my reality.  On October 6^th, 2020 I published my book, I’m Still Your Mom, dedicated to my son Tyler on what would have been his 34^th birthday. Proceeds from the sale of this book go towards supporting mental health initiatives.

After 12 years of being involved in supporting mental health and then writing a book, the same question haunted me every day. Where do people go when they need help? When people asked me for help, I still had no quick answer of where to send them. We don’t always get 2 or 3 chances to help, support and guide. There is still a lot of stigma around asking for help for one’s struggles; this is called “mental health”.  People tend to Google the symptom, not the help.  I’ve known for 20 years there needed to be a guide to support, help, and share mental health resources, and now there is one. It is my hope that with the No One Stands Alone booklets, the people in our communities will be able to find the right help when they need it most.