A little boy with an anxiety disorder made a desperate plea for help after bullies at his school reportedly beat him for 10 minutes when he was a mere 7-year-old.
Jack Wilkinson, a now 9-year-old boy from Sydney, Australia, was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when he was a small child, according to his mother, Kristy Sturgess. His anxiety caused other children to taunt him, often making fun of him and calling him names like “crazy” or “weird.”
“There’s always been kids who had decided Jack was an easy target because of his reactions,” Sturgess told DailyMail. “They would say things, call him names, tell him he was crazy.”
The bullying eventually escalated to physical attacks. After a child at his school attacked him for at least 10 minutes, Jack had had enough.
“Jack was physically hit and kicked in the playground for nearly 10 minutes, and was stabbed with a plastic fork in the back,” the boy’s mother said.
The same day, Jack went home and wrote a heartbreaking note. The following morning, he put the letter on his teacher’s desk.
“I don’t want to be alive,” the note read. ‘God, just take me.”
Jack’s mother, understandably devastated by what her child was going through, decided to find a way to help Jack, which in turn sparked a creation to help all children.
Jack is an artist. He’s always loved to draw, and Sturgess had the idea that turning his art into a way to help others would allow her son regain his confidence. He now makes artwork for t-shirts. Half of the profits from the sales go to Kids Helpline, a non-profit organization that offers counseling to children, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The more t-shirts he sales, the higher Jack’s confidence grows.
“What Kids Helpline offer, the support they offer, there are some kids who don’t have that,” Sturgess said. ‘It’s about letting people know mental health isn’t a taboo thing to talk about – it’s okay not to be okay and there are people you can speak to confidentially.”
While Kids Helpline is a confidential counseling for Australia’s children, the U.S. offers a similar services. The Crisis Text Line encourages anyone having anxiety issues and other crisis issues to text “CONNECT” to 741741.
Further, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline offers confidential and free support to anyone who needs help, at 1-800-273-8255.
To learn more about and see his artwork, visit his Facebook and Instagram pages.
Childhood anxiety can be hard to detect, and an alarming number of children aren't getting the help they need. #9News | http://9News.com.au
Posted by 9 News Sydney on Saturday, February 9, 2019
[Feature Photo: Pixabay]