Anyone can have had a crappy childhood or bad time in their life. Now, I don't have it all; we just scrape by financially, I had a recent medical emergency that gave us tons of expensive medical bills, I'm thin, I was an overachiever in high school (valedictorian), college (grauduated summa cum laude with one B with a degree in Microbiology), got an M.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology. I'm thin, sure, but I've also had an eating disorder in college & thoughts still stick around (anorexia). I was sexually abused as a child and then again years later there was an incident in a massage parlor. I was the unintended victim of a shooting. I have a husband with a Ph.D. who can't find work now that the government has pulled most of its funding for NASA to do research. I have a brilliant daughter (gifted & talented), pulls high grades, but she has tons of sensory issues bordering on autism. I have bipolar disorder. I have panic disorder. I have PTSD. Some days mentally, I'm a mess. Mental illness runs deep in my mom's side of the family. My sister is doing geneology, and when she pulled my great grandfather's death certificate cause of death was given as hanged by a rope (I'd always heard he committed suicide). I suspect my maternal grandfather was bipolar; he was always up & down. I think some people get unlucky and family genes play a role in it too. Also, about the sexual abuse thing...I don't know the stats for boys & males, but 1 out of every 3-4 women will be exposed to it to some extent in her lifetime, and let me tell you, whether it happens as an adult or a child, the guilt & shame just have a way of eating you at your core.

Life is complicated and multi-faceted. What we present to the outside world, even to friends and family is not what we feel inside and don't show the scars or pressure a person may feel.