I Shot Myself In The Face

A SUICIDE survivor who shot herself in the head now helps others to beat the stigma of mental health. At 7am one foggy morning in 2010, Christen McGinnes, loaded a .357 revolver at her home in Virginia and calmly made the decision to shoot herself in the head. The decision to take her own life had come after a year of trauma after losing her job, breaking up with her partner and her beloved grandmother passing away. Christen was airlifted to hospital and was in a coma for three weeks. The bullet had destroyed the right side of her face, from her eye to her chin. It had blown off the right jawbone, a third of her teeth and tongue, the lower half of her mouth and her right eye. She’d also shattered her nose. The love and care she received from the people around her showed Christen that life was worth living, and now she spends her time helping others break the stigma that surrounds mental health and suicide attempts by volunteering at the Trauma Network Centre in Virginia.