Stella Malone, 22, found herself alone in a hospital room with 17 staples in her arm. She had cut herself with a kitchen knife, almost slashing her main artery.
After a weekend of binge drinking, Malone got in a fight with her mom that ended with her cutting herself with a serrated kitchen knife.
“It wasn’t just a cut; it was a laceration that was so deep,” Malone said.
She was put in a behavior health clinic.
While she was there she asked God for hope.
“I was like, ‘God if you’re real, I need to feel you. I need to see you, I need you to do something in my life,'” Malone said.
Malone was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and Depression at the age of 13.
“I lived my life with a cloud over me, with doctors telling me I had all of this stuff wrong with me like how I would be depressed forever. All of these really sad things,” Malone said.
She started abusing alcohol and marijuana at the age of 13 or 14 years old.
“I did a lot of things to be accepted, and I did a lot of things out of loneliness,” Malone said.
Malone started using other substances such as Xanax, Hydrocodone and Vicodin.
“Throughout my school years, I was really big into Xanax. It was something that really took me away from whatever I was facing in the day,” Malone said.
Before Malone graduated high school she started using Ecstasy. This habit caused her to have anxiety problems, Malone said.
On June 21, 2004, her close friend died of an overdose of Oxycontin and Xanax.
Malone vowed to never use drugs again, but shortly after she moved to Dallas for college her feelings of loneliness returned and she fell back into her habits of partying and Ecstasy.
“I literally thought I was losing my mind. I thought I was seeing things. I was hearing voices, and I wanted to kill myself,” Malone said.
Malone’s last experience with hard drugs was in 2004. She stopped using because she thought she saw the ghost of her friend who had died.
Although she became drug free, alcohol was still a problem in her life.
“I got tired of it. I got tired of living that life. I got tired of trying to fill voids with alcohol and drugs, with substances and self-mutilation,” Malone said.
After the confrontation with her mom and cutting herself, Malone stopped drinking and turned her life around completely.
Malone is now actively seeking God in her life and is the leader of a local organization called Steal, Kill and Destroy that she started during the summer of 2008.
SKAD is an organization of young people reaching out to other young people with love.
It was originally started to raise awareness about drug addiction, suicide, and other destructive behaviors.
“It turned into a movement of love, a movement of acceptance, and to promote positive lifestyles to youth because they are important,” Malone said.
SKAD is a faith-based organization, but they do not want to push their faith on anyone.
“What we are trying to do is just show them love and compassion through all circumstances no matter what their beliefs are,” Malone said.
SKAD is not affiliated with any one church.
Jacob Page, a Bible major at TJC and a recovering drug addict, attends SKAD regularly. Page recently lost his house and both of his parents in a house fire on March 4, 2009.
“SKAD has really helped me through what I was going through,” Page said, “They are real people who really love God.”
SKAD is based on the Bible verse John 10:10 that says: “the thief comes to steal kill and destroy; I come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
The organization meets on Tuesdays for a leadership meeting and Thursday nights for an event called Community Night that is held at Starbucks on South Broadway Avenue. At community night the kids talk about issues going on in their lives and sometimes a topic from the Bible.
Anyone is welcome to Community Night.
The local music scene plays a big role in SKAD’s outreach. They believe music has a big influence on people’s lives.
“We like to promote at concerts, that’s mostly the scene that we are in,” Samantha McMahn, 17-year-old Chapel Hill high school student and member of SKAD, said.
The organization is in need of funding in order to hold community events and functions. The members of SKAD say that God is faithful and will give them what they need if it is his plan.
Malone hopes SKAD will truly impact people.
“I don’t want this to be a trend. I don’t want this to be a fad. I don’t want this just to be the next big thing. I want this to be something that truly impacts and changes lives,” Malone said.
For more information contact Stella Malone at StellaSKAD@gmail.com, or visit http://www.myspace.com/stealkillanddestroy.
