OC87 Recovery Diaries is an interactive website that features stories of mental health, empowerment and change.

In this segment, Ashley Neubauer, a paramedic and volunteer firefighter who has experienced depression, anxiety, painful flashbacks and bad dreams , shares her experiences.

Neubauer’s focus on recovery has allowed her to keep working as a first responder.

“I really do enjoy helping people,” she says, even in the darkest of times. “When we get called, it’s generally the worst day of someone’s life ... we’re the ones that come to fix that, make them feel they’re safe, we’ll make them better.”

Neubauer is a “huge patient advocate,” and invests a good deal of herself into every interaction. And she says that her career choice has many rewards. But it also poses significant

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