Fighting on. Leah Messer opened up about how she overcame suicidal thoughts on a new episode of her podcast, “Life Reboot.”
The Teen Mom 2 star detailed her struggle during the Thursday, October 18, episode. “I had this expectation of who I was supposed to be as a mom, as a wife, as a person and I … just never reached them,” she said.
The reality star previously shared with Us Weekly that at her “lowest point” during her custody battle with ex-husband Corey Simms, she considered taking her own life: “Cause if anyone knows me they know that when it comes to being a mom and my girls, they are my life. They are my life. … I wasn’t in the greatest place mentally and then it was affecting me physically, like it almost cost me my children. I became suicidal. It was a struggle.”
Once she discovered “this life is worth living,” Messer, 26, said she used motivational words to put herself in a better headspace: “It’s like I had to train my mind to know that I am love, I am confident, I am worthy and … I said that repeatedly to myself and like, it just did wonders.”
The MTV star also encouraged her kids — 8-year-old twins Ali and Aleeah, whom she shares with 29-year-old Simms, and 5-year-old daughter Addie, whom she shares with Jeremy Calvert — to do the same. “Even for my girls, when they started school this year, they knew,” she noted. “Addie wrote on the chalkboard, she was like … ‘I am happy because I have a family that loves me,’ and she even put like why and blessed.”
Messer hopes her fans can relate to and learn from the issues she has weathered. “There’s a lot that I will address on the podcast. My role … is to share what I have went through and what I’ve learned as I’ve went through it,” she told Us in October. “Every high and low in my life … that’s what I’m most excited to share and truly help others with things that may be going through the same things.”
Messer told listeners on Thursday: “Today I would say that I am kind, I am loving, I am confident, I am courageous, I am strong.”
If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
