Every six seconds, Samaritans responds to a call for help.

Last year, the national charity responded to 5.4 million calls.

The Samaritans volunteers have no idea who is going to be on the other end of the phone each time, or what sort of distress they will be in.

Jessica Holmes, from Colchester, is one of the millions who have received support.

She is 16 years old, and will be turning 17 next month.

This, in itself, is an amazing achievement as when she was 15 she did not imagine living past her 16th birthday.

Jessica said: “I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is the trigger to all my feelings and thoughts.

“I never knew it was that as a young child; I just felt different and had a strong dislike of myself.

“I still had friends, but I always felt distant from them.”

She has experienced these feelings for as long as she can remember, but they had become more powerful over the past three years.

It has resulted in four attempts on her own life.

She added: “In those moments, it’s kind of like I’m drowning, and no one can hear me.

“I feel like there’s no other way to be free from that heavy feeling in my chest. I still get that feeling now, but I know where to reach out to, even though I don’t want to.

“The thing with being suicidal is only people who have been suicidal will understand why you feel that way; otherwise people will look down on you as being selfish or ruining other people’s lives because you can’t be bothered to deal with your own.

“The fact of the matter is people who are suicidal will get worse if you tell them they’re being dramatic or just attention seeking and it’s shocking how many people still don’t understand that.”

Her mum, Dawn, and nan, Chris, started to notice her attempts at self harm.

The pair both tried to speak to her about it but, like most with poor mental health, confiding in family was difficult for her.

She added: “To start with, my family struggled with it because I never wanted to talk about it.

“I felt like a burden on them. My mum is an absolutely amazing woman, she’s been through hell and back herself, so she understands some of the feelings I have.

“She’s got me all the help I need and is still trying to help me as much as she can. My dad, Jonathan, tries his best to help me at home when my mum’s working at the weekends.

“I know they worry about me because we as a family have always been open and honest with each other.

“I think that’s why there was an understanding of how badly my mental health had declined, in the early days of my self-harm.”

At just five years old she was visiting school councillors.

Then in Year Nine at school she joined the Youth Enquiry Service in Colchester for support.

She said: “From there I just got worse and worse, to the point where I wasn’t going out because I was so fearful of the world and my self-harm was getting out of hand.

“I started to go to A&E to see the crisis team. We were up there backwards and forwards, even during school hours, until eventually they managed to bump me up to urgent on the waiting list.

“I saw the psychiatrist who decided medication would help me out a bit.

“I was referred to have cognitive behavioural therapy, which in the end I wasn’t able to respond to because I wasn’t well enough.

“I ended up being referred onto a ward, I wasn’t there for very long, just under four weeks.

“I met some truly amazing people in there, staff and patients.

“It did me the world of good, reassuring me I wasn’t crazy and other people battled with their mental health on a daily basis too. I wasn’t a failure.”

On returning home she had family therapy with some relatives, and trauma therapy.

She said: “For the first time in what seemed like forever, I felt in control of what was going to happen, not only in the sessions but in my life too.

“I’ve started it again with a new therapist which I’m hoping will give me that last push to recovery.”

She continues to call Colchester Samaritans for support.

Mum Dawn got involved with the Samaritans and took part in a recent concert to raise money for them.

She helped raised £550 on the night, and during that evening Jess spoke out openly about her situation in public for the first time.

The 16-year-old added: “Granted, I’m not completely better yet, but I’m almost there.

“People who are in a similar situations to me often feel they don’t want to get better because they don’t see any way to get better.

“I found I had to have a purpose, and if I found my purpose, I would want to get better.

“For me personally, my purpose is to make sure people don’t feel alone in dark times and there’s always people to help you.

“Even if you can’t find that help within your own circle there is always someone out there.”

To contact the Samaritans, call 0845 790 9090 and to find out more on the service, go to samaritans.org/branches/colchester-samaritans.