A Story Shared by:
AmaSepiaChan J.

The Greatest Change In My Life
(AmaSepiaChan’s story in her words age 14)

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw

I moved back to America from Tokyo, Japan in 2006. Bullying soon became a major problem in my life. I lived with the stress from bullying for more than 5 years. In order to cope I used my artistic ability and created many original pieces of art.  I decided that I was going to be victorious over bullying in my life and with the help of my parents I spent the last year fighting back through creating art.

The bullying continued throughout 7th grade. However, towards the end of that year I decided not to accept it in my life anymore. It was a fight to continue getting good grades and to stay in school. Things changed when a bullying situation was poorly handled. I was one of the victims. The problem went on for most of the day and my Mom came into the school. I left school a week before the last day. My stress level was very high and I was upset and traumatized. This was the day my life truly changed.

A friend introduced my Mom to a Naturopathic doctor through a lecture. My Mom and I went to meet her. We both thought my hypertension was back. This was a problem I had when I was younger. My health improved in 2012 just before 7th grade. I was constantly sick, which worried my family. My Mom set her appointment for an hour, and I also had one for an hour. Instead, we spent the appointment dealing with my problems. We told our new doctor about everything. The doctor felt something was seriously wrong. I rescheduled for blood tests, which my earlier Pediatric doctor refused to do.

The Naturopathic doctor suspected I had hypoglycemia because my blood sugar was dropping often. One day I went bike riding with my dad and my blood sugar fell. I almost blacked out. My Mom called the doctor and told her what happened. She said to check off the box on the lab papers, we still had, to test for an autoimmune disease. The doctor didn’t think it would come back positive, but wanted to do the test just in case.

Weeks later, I tested positive for an auto-immune disease. We were all in shock because we spent the last few years using conventional medical methods and got nowhere. Yet, in just a matter of weeks we had an answer. My doctor said the stress from school might have caused it. She decided to take another test to confirm what the disease was. She recommended a new Pediatrician, who works with her, for my future health care needs. We left my old doctor because we told her about what was going on with my health, and at school, but she refused to do any tests. She said I should see a therapist not her.

My blood test results came back mostly negative. The type of auto-immune disease is not yet detectable and more tests are scheduled. I did another hormonal test and the auto-immune test came back negative but my cortisol was still very low. My doctor decided to increase the medicine to support my adrenal glands. I’m taking natural medication to produce more cortisol, and I will continue taking hormonal tests in months to come. My diet is still very strict and I still cannot eat many foods. Just recently we saw an Endocrinologist and tests were run to check the hormones in my pituitary gland, my thyroid and adrenal glands. They all improved. However, i am still not all the way back to good health. I still have to take extra care.

I’m grateful for these changes and obstacles. The challenges and obstacles of the past year were tough but I am a stronger person because of them. My life has become less stressful and more positive because of the work everyone is doing to help me get better. My parents fought to get me out of school, even though they thought we had few options for independent education in our area. However, we found the right people to help us.

Through it all, I continued to produce more art. The webpage and exhibits my Mom created to tell my story has helped me recover and heal. I have donated my artwork to help other people who are suffering. I had 4 solo art shows with 25 plus art pieces and took part in a group show with adult artists. I was the youngest there. My goal was to have a solo art show at some point in my teenage life, but I had more than I expected. I am going continue to help others by donating my art or money from any art sales. I would like to take my art show on tour to share my story and to encourage other young people to push back against bullying by telling their stories.

Many bad things happened in my life so far but now something amazing is happening. I am healing and helping to inspire and heal others through my art. I have been donating my art to raise money to help others who or are sick and suffering.  I learned the importance of standing up and speaking up. My life is worth something. A movement like this is important to me because it brings people together to help create positive change.  This is the important change in my life so far. If I stayed in public school, I would be more stressed, and I probably would not be here today. Now I can turn my life around and become healthy and strong again while doing the things I love to do.

My anti-bullying webpage: http://iamproudofwhoiam.com

My FineArt gallery: http://amasepiaworks.artistwebsites.com/

ArtistsInfo UK Gallery: http://www.artistsinfo.co.uk/artist/amaranthia-sepia-gittens-chan-amasepiachan/