I am twenty-nine years old and grew up in a foster home where I’d experienced physical, emotional, sexual, and verbal abuse from my adoptive mother.

I took to many dangerous forms of coping over the years and managed to curb some of these habits except for inflicting self-harm, specifically cutting, burning, and biting myself.

Over the last ten years, I have been on numerous medications and counseling sessions and until a few months ago I was in and out of psychiatric hospitals. All of the treatments did nothing to help my self-destructive behavior.

One day, a mentor downloaded Pastor Joseph Prince podcasts into my MP3 player and I started listening to them. One evening, as I was listening to one of the podcasts, I heard Pastor Prince say, “Stop beating yourself up. Jesus has already taken the beating for you!” Immediately, all desire to hurt myself left and I am now healed. Praise Jesus, the great physician!

The writer has requested to remain anonymous | North Carolina, United States