Priya Balagopal struggled with depression and anxiety for most of her life. On Dec. 10 she set up a GoFundMe page to use the crowdsourcing platform to pay for the school loans and medical bills from failed suicide attempts in the past. Less than a month after the page launched, she succeeded. Within a week, she raised more than $27,000, exceeding her goal of unburdening her parents with any bills she might have left behind.

“The only reason I made it as far as I did is because of the people in my life whom I felt I owed it to to keep fighting,” Balagopal wrote on her GoFundMe page . “I didn't want to abandon them. I didn't want to burden them. I didn't want to let them down. ”

She tried to stay alive long enough to pay off her loans, but described her pain as overwhelming. After she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014, Balagopal continued to deal with her mental illness in the shadows while volunteering at suicide and rape hotlines and AmeriCorps. She was highly involved and social, but continued to tell her sister it was exhausting to stay positive all of the time.

“I'm tired of feeling like a prisoner in my own body. Like a spectator of my own life,” Balagopal wrote. “That's what mental illness does to you. I tried to hold out for as long as I could. But every bad day, every disappointment, every heartbreak, every anxiety attack just reminded me that my time here had an expiration date. ”

If you or anyone you is struggling with their own anxiety or depression, Priya asked that you open dialogue for mental illness and volunteer for a crisis hotline. Please visit the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline for more information to seek help or information on how you can be a part of the solution.