1 in 4 people will suffer from a mental illness in their lifetime. And as I say to my friendship group, don't worry, I got us covered. As you can tell, I don't have many friends either!
As a child, I was described as anxious, a worrier, and overthinker.
As an adult turns out I just had a collection of undiagnosed acronyms after my name none of which would help me in life, would often hinder me in many ways and could not be dutifully added to a CV.
The first and arguably most debilitating on my life is our friend and companion OCD. Often viewed as quirky, a cute affection for perfectionism and a love of clicking buttons.
Reality is, it's not, sorry guys, this isn't a recruitment attempt for the more rare OCD types. It's hard to explain to non-sufferers but essentially, imagine your mind stating your worst fear will happen if you don't do x. Then you do x and it goes, yea, still not convinced, try again. Cue never ending panic loop.
Second, the lovely coconspirator to OCD and that's GAD. Slightly misleading as it's another anxiety disorder but as a child of the Pokemon generation, we gotta catch em all! Generalised Anxiety Disorder, or as my friend says, generally anxious. Less particular than OCD, widens the net of anxiety to every topic ever in the world rather than my specific fears. Very helpful if you want a full list of every single thing that could ever go wrong with anything, less so for trying to navigate normal life.
Finally, my most recent diagnosis, CPTSD. Chronic PTSD, I had no clue I had PTSD until recently, I'd always assumed it looked like what you see in the films with war veterans. Mine is way less subtle and I still don't understand it fully but I've had the most effective treatment for it.
There are more that have been and gone, others that are yet to be obtained and all impact me differently. I'll never be "well" or "normal" as my brain is different in its set up but over the years, I have learnt triggers, what works, what doesn't and how not to fix it!
Create Your Own Website With Webador