From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero,

stories where one person reached out to help another in a time of need.

My unsung hero story is from a doctor I heard over 30 years ago.

He rarely got any recognition for his huge heart and his

unselfish actions.

You mean the world to me and I can't thank you enough.

Today's story comes from Trieste Ericsson.

Trieste has struggled with waves of depression since she was a little kid.

In 2014, her grandmother died and her long relationship

with her boyfriend came to an end. And that's when her depression became almost

unbearable.

And it just really hit a major downhill around that time.

It made me feel alone, useless, and like a burden on everyone that I knew.

I felt like I wasn't worth anything, like I brought no value to the world or to anyone.

Trieste is a dance teacher and back in 2014 she was teaching a ballet class.

She didn't have a driver's license at the time, so she relied on family and

friends for rides. One day after class, she went outside to wait for her ride home.

A warning that this next part of the story has to do with suicide.

I waited for about an hour and they never came so I decided to just walk home. It wasn't super far, but longer than I wanted to walk.

I was just having one of the worst days of my life. On the way home, I crossed over the 49 bridge,

and it's a pretty high bridge, and I was looking down at all the cars,

just feeling so useless and such a burden to everyone in my life

...