" invisible obstacles can be harder to climb "

Rapunzel,

I was bipolar all my life and didn't know it. I was fighting mania and depression and didn't know they had names, that they weren't normal and that other people didn't have to fight them. I couldn't figure out why I could pull straight A's one semester in college and then barely scrape by the next, barely able to function at all. I didn't understand why I would suffer what turned out to be delusions of my role in job situations, only to realize too late that I had screwed something up real bad and was totally shocked when I was fired. My self esteem was in the toilet and I didn't have a clue why I kept doing these things. Then one day I landed in the hospital and someone explained to me what major depression is. But I was still misdiagnosed for 20 years so the hell continued until four years ago.

Yes, invisible obstacles are just as hard as visible ones, even harder. At least, you know who or what you are up against. I'm 56 and am just now beginning to live the life I've always wanted to live. My self-esteem is still a challenge, I haven't made a scrapbook but I've spent hundreds of hours journaling and in therapy, working in workbooks and reading, reading, reading. I make endless notes in the margins. It is the hardest work I've ever done and the most rewarding. Hang in there.