I guess I could elaborate on what I've experienced since my OP didn't really cover my experiences. I think my depression started at 13, but it wasn't full-blown and diagnosable until I was sixteen. That's also when I was hospitalized for the first time. I missed twelve days of high school in a loony bin. I was in and out of hospitals for years, and I had a very serious suicide attempt at 19. At 22 my best friend killed himself, which landed me a shitload of PTSD and much more depression. Five years later another good friend of mine from high school died, and I hit rock bottom once again.
It took years of no job and little stress to be able to work on myself to control it. Once I did that, there was a honeymoon period where I felt great about life, because I could control my depression very well. But life has its ways of beating you down, and here I am, feeling the tip of the iceberg I know is below. The thing is that I'm wiser now, and I can recognize when things are going downhill and have to change what I am doing to avoid that downward spiral you can get trapped in.
It took years of no job and little stress to be able to work on myself to control it. Once I did that, there was a honeymoon period where I felt great about life, because I could control my depression very well. But life has its ways of beating you down, and here I am, feeling the tip of the iceberg I know is below. The thing is that I'm wiser now, and I can recognize when things are going downhill and have to change what I am doing to avoid that downward spiral you can get trapped in.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
