Posted by pegasus on October 3, 2006, at 22:24:49
In reply to at what age did many people start to feel ill?.., posted by sleepygirl on October 3, 2006, at 21:44:01
Interesting question.
For me, I think I thought my experience was pretty normal until I really stopped functioning during a major depressive episode when I was about 23. But in retrospect, I can see that I had at least two major depressive episode before that. And I wasn't functioning much during those, either. But they were associated with big life events, so I thought I was just having a reaction that was in the range of normal. But I guess even at that time, I knew it was a lot harder for me than for other people. So, I knew and I didn't know that I had a problem.
And I think my understanding that my obsessions and anxiety were beyond normal happened gradually over almost 20 years. I didn't really get it until my mid 30s, when I finally had to seek professional help or start losing important things in my life. And even then, I didn't *really* get it until I found a medication that made me feel truly normal. Then it was like this amazing light was shed on my experience up to that point, and I actually felt happy and fully functional for the first time.
Long answer to a short question. I guess the short answer is that I had these problems all along, since childhood, but only realized it gradually over many years.
p
poster:pegasus
thread:691655
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060926/msgs/691659.html