I started as a psychology major my first semester in college when I was 18 years old. I really loved psychology. It was something that I could relate to, and was driven to understand. I had never had any therapy myself at that point, but I knew that my family was weird and that I was not like most people, and I think that I knew that I was depressed. I wanted to understand myself and my family, and was still under my parents' control, and in my family it was unacceptable to ask for help or talk to anyone about having mental health issues, but I was able to take the classes that I wanted to in college.

One of my Psychology 101 professors made a statement in a lecture to a class of like 700 students that "if you are interested in psychology because you are trying to figure yourself out, we don't want you in this field." I felt like he was talking directly to me, even though he had no idea who I was, and because of his statement I gave up on my interest in psychology. I changed my major, but I kept taking psychology classes anyway when I could fit them into my schedule, and by the time I was in my third year of college I realized that I was on track to complete a second major in psychology, so I did, because I could, and because it was something I never lost interest in, even though I was still convinced that I could never work in this field.

When I was not accepted to graduate school in speech pathology, which was the alternative I had switched to, even though I was an honors student and almost of the rest of my class was accepted, because the faculty thought that I was odd and lacking social skills, I gave up on everything for a long time. I had been in therapy a couple of times in those years but the therapists I went to failed to recognize my depression, let alone anything else significant. They told me that I was just homesick.

I was lost to severe depression and hopelessness for 13 years before I hit my lowest point and started to look for answers. I read a book by a psychologist, Martha Manning, who developed severe depression and was hospitalized and had ECT and went back to work as a psychologist after her treatment and enough of a recovery period for her memory to start functioning again after the ECT.

I started to read about other mental health professionals who struggled with mental illness, like Kay Redfield Jamison with bipolar disorder, and any others I could find out about. I figured that if they could do it, so could I, and I went back to school in psychology, got a master's degree in counseling, and became a therapist.

It hasn't been easy, and I have continued to go to therapy when needed, and my most recent diagnoses include major depression, GAD (I think that social anxiety makes more sense and have had that diagnosis too), PTSD, and Asperger's disorder. The most recent diagnoses are from last Fall. I have trouble with keeping jobs because I have problems working with employers (I have had some really bad employers), and because after a while my employers notice that I am odd and they don't want to work with me, and they discriminate. But I work well with my clients, and my employers agree that I am a good therapist and have excellent clinical skills. The problems that I have with working I would have no matter what profession I were in.

Everybody is different. There are some people who would be triggered too much or have mental health problems that might be harmful to their clients. There are some who don't have enough insight into their own problems, some who deny having their own problems, those who are too mentally ill at a given time, etc. There are also people who take responsibility, get support when needed, and are able to be good therapists. Some therapists lack insight, maybe because they haven't worked through their own issues. I don't think that I know anyone who is entirely without mental defect, although some people have more challenges than others. We need to be responsible and make the best choices for ourselves. But there are plenty of good therapists who have or had severe mental illnesses, so don't let anybody tell you that you can't do what you want to do if you are capable of doing it. This isn't for everyone though, and if you believe that you shouldn't do this work, don't feel bad about that either. We also need to listen to feedback and get a reality check sometimes. I know therapists who are licensed and practicing who shouldn't be. But even though I have my ongoing struggles and some that will continue indefinitely, there is nobody who knows me, including my clients, co-workers, and my own therapists, who is telling me that I shouldn't be working as a therapist.