What is your biggest concern with your conditions?

Do you know when your issues started?  What caused them?  Have they always been there?  Are your events triggered or constantly going at some level?  Understanding these things can begin to take back the power those things have had over us.  

For example...  I suffer from both Persistent Major Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  I've had Major Depression as long as I can remember even into young childhood.  When I tried to express how I heard and saw things and how I felt I got deflected, gaslighted and ignored.  After a while I finally internalized it to the point where the only way to function was by imitating those around me.  That way I could "fit" in but never really belong because I couldn't feel things like others did.  I got real good at living a double life.  The one expected of me when around people and then the real one when nobody was around.  I tried to get help as I got older to get told that children don't have mental issues and that I would have to wait until I was 18 to get any real help.  Life was way harder than it should have been.  When I was finally able to get help, I was 45 and found a psychiatrist that actually cared about what was going on with me and wanted to learn what and how I needed the things I needed.  As we learned from each other we gained greater insight.

It all starts with your community.  Those you choose who suffer as well.  And those who support you and actually want to learn about the real you.  Create a toxic list so you know the type of people you can't talk to.  Those who don't want to learn about you but want you to conform to their world view.  We don't need those kinds of people.

It's a journey with no quick fixes but we don't have to go it alone anymore.  We can make a better world for us together.