This is a good and tough question. i can't remember a time when i wasn't sick. i was originally DX with depression when i was 12 and bipolar at 31 with a lot of trauma throughout my life. I agree with yagalada that everything i've been through has made me what i am today, but I wonder what my life would be like if i'd never felt depressed, attempted suicide, been hospitalized...when i think about all of the time in my life that's been spent on this illness....and the time my parents and friends have put into me with this.....it's very difficult to even picture.