Brandi Care (Brandi Care Hicks)

Depression Awareness Advocate

Brandi Care, speaker and aspiring author, courageously shares her journey through a depressed teenage mind and provides a first hand perspective of how education, awareness, and communication of depression and suicide can help save lives.

As a junior in high school, Brandi Care had all the symptoms of a depressed teenager...yet no one- not even Brandi- knew that she was depressed. On the outside she had everything going for her- she excelled academically, socially, and physically in sports. But on the inside, her secret pain and despair spiraled into thoughts of suicide. At age 17, Brandi jumped off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, in a desperate attempt to end her life.

Since her miraculous survival and recovery, Brandi has appeared on Dateline NBC, Good Morning America, and the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has shared her compelling story at college campuses such as Johns Hopkins and University of Richmond, and spoken at events sponsored by Mental Health Organizations. Through using Brandi's story as a base to discuss depression, Brandi's message that depression is a treatable illness and that there is hope has reached parents and teenagers across the country.

“If I had been aware that depression was actually something that could happen to me and educated that it is a treatable illness, I then would have been able to communicate to someone that I needed help. I could have minimized the pain and suffering I dealt with in secret for months and months and could have gotten help early enough to prevent my depressed mind from spiraling into thoughts of suicide.”
– Brandi Care