In junior high school, Heather was stalked by an online predator and when she was 14, he proposed meeting her somewhere, but she declined. Later she found out that the man she had been speaking with was actually 45 years old, with teenaged daughters of his own, and was arrested by the FBI for transportation of a minor across state lines for prostitution. This event brought a lot of fear into Heather’s life. She began to self-harm as a way to feel a sense of power and control over her emotions. Her anxiety robbed her of hunger and she soon developed an eating disorder, sometimes going days without food. Heather tried residential treatment and therapy, but nothing worked. Her pastor recommended she apply to Mercy because he knew the thing missing in her treatment was Jesus.
At Mercy she learned to forgive herself of false responsibility. She learned to deal with the anger she had suppressed from what had happened to her. Counseling also taught her the proper grieving process. When her anxiety attacks stopped, she knew she had been set free. Since graduating from Mercy in 2013, she met and married her husband, David, and she is pursuing a degree in nursing.
