I would not say that my mental illness journey started by being convinced I needed professional advice. I would say that it started by my being a child in an environment that was very unstable emotionally. That threatened me, made me so afraid I could not cope. I realized during adolescence, when I began to wake from the amnesia that I seem to have developed in order to survive, that something was wrong, but did not know what or how to get things to improve. Going to a professional did not solve that problem either.