A victim of severe bullying in middle school here several years ago, Kate McGlynn-Moore recalls gradually slipping into a troubling funk from which she has only now fully recovered. Although a short period of constant harassment from her peers may not have directly caused the bipolar depression she came to suffer through, it appears to be the trigger for a teen whose family has some history with the condition.

At one point, Kate said her situation degraded to the point that she resorted to habitually "cutting" herself on the wrist and, later, the thighs as a coping mechanism. Her memory isn't crystal clear, but she can recall hurting from depression since age 12 or 13. "My mind blocks things out, but I didn't immediately fall into a depression - it progressed to that," Kate said earlier this month. "It started with the bullying, and I tried to fight it and keep up good spirits.

However, today, with the help of her loving family and a strong spiritual faith, Kate, 17, is a healthy senior at Prescott High School who plans to enroll at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff next fall. Kate said the bullying started in the summer between her seventh- and eighth-grade years. "I came from a very good family, but my parents had no idea of the severity of the situation," she said. "I kept it from them.

While in middle school, Kate said she felt alienated both on - and off - campus as well as on the Internet by students she had thought were her friends. The bullying eventually led to her changing schools.

"A month into the eighth grade, I know that things had progressed to a very dark place," she said. "I feared and loathed the idea of going to school."At one point, Kate said she stopped sleeping and eating, although it was not an act of rebellion.

"Everything about me changed - I wore black hair, clothes and makeup," she added. To this day, Kate doesn't know why her former group of friends turned volatile. She endured a lot of emotional and mental bullying, which included threats to hurt or crash her computer over the Internet, although no one followed through with them.

"I feared seeing my friends or any social networking account," she said. As for her cutting, Kate thinks it started toward the end of seventh grade or the beginning of eighth grade four years ago, and she continued doing it for several months. Kate said everything came to a head - for the better - one day when one of her teachers asked her out of the blue: "Why are you wearing so much black?"

Out of concern for her wellbeing, a meeting ensued at school with Kate; her teacher; her mother, Danielle McGlynn; and the school nurse. "It was awful being there because I felt so hopeless, so vulnerable and so ashamed," Kate said. "I opened up my heart and put it all out there. They made me show them where I cut myself."Three days after the meeting, Kate was hospitalized for 10 days because of her cutting and for the fact that she was a suicide risk.

Kate later underwent different types of therapy and began meeting with a psychiatrist. "I attribute part of my being here today to both of them - my teacher and the school nurse," Kate said. "I now have a tremendous faith in God, and I turned my life around."In a phone interview this past week, Danielle said the bullying of her daughter was "absolutely horrible."

"It was one girl after another, and then a group of them," she said. "I think a lot of the other kids were not part of a mom and dad at home. Several of them were from broken families, and people are easily led. "Building kids' self-esteem, getting rid of bullying and making our kids more accountable where they can stand in and tell a bully to back off and then be supported by other people with that strong of a character is important."

Danielle added that it's important for parents to know their children and talk consistently with them about their problems. She said Kate was always a "happy-go-lucky," academically gifted little girl until the bullying made her quiet and withdrawn. "Your kids need to be prepared for bullying, and they need to know that the resources are at home to help them counter it," Danielle said. "I would like the schools to be more legally equipped to take a stronger stand on bullying, and it should be brought up on a state level where teachers can do more."

For six months, Kate had stopped cutting herself until she relapsed. Only this time, she migrated from the wrist to her thighs. What she regrets most is hiding the cutting from her parents, which she says hurt them. However, she said parents should know that most people who are into cutting are not into committing suicide.

"When I started cutting, I didn't know anyone else who did it," she said. "I felt so numb. It was a coping mechanism, and I wanted to control or shake the pain I was feeling. When you cut yourself, it releases endorphins and pain-killing hormones equivalent to morphine. I had to learn healthy ways to cope with pain."

These days, Kate says she's disappointed that she let the situation with her bullying control her. She wishes that she had expressed her problems with someone she trusts and/or kept a journal.

"You have to guard yourself - they beat me emotionally," she said of her tormentors. "I did my best to cut them off, but I let them get to me."Presently, Danielle said she couldn't be happier with Kate, who has come out of the bullying a stronger person. "We're extremely proud of Kate," she said, referring to herself and Kate's father, David Moore. "She's an outstanding young woman who's very caring and loving."

With her parents' help, Kate went on to receive a counselor's guidance from the eighth grade through part of her sophomore year in high school. But it wasn't until after her relapse that she met local psychologist George Pritchard, whom she credits with changing her life. "He dug beyond the superficial pain and illustrated to me how big and how powerful God was," she said. "And he incorporated my family into my treatment because I had wounded relationships."

Now, in the midst of her senior year, Kate says she's "extremely happy" and "in love with life." She enjoys reading and music, and she has surrounded herself with good, caring friends. Kate recently attended a parenting workshop where she talked openly about self-harm. She hopes to do more speaking engagements in the near future. "My purpose here is to help people," she said. "That's my mission."