*sigh*

I think I am content to explain my 'problems' as life. Some people drift through life with little awareness of emotional distress or any learned response to trauma. Others, however, are acutely aware of everything that surrounds them.

I am a highly sensitive person. I was a gifted child. I was traumatized in ways that I can't begin to comprehend before I was even 4 months old. Some classify me as clinically depressed. My pdoc classifies me as having PTSD. My problems have ranged from generalized anxiety to physical manifestation of extreme stress. At the worst, my nervous system malfunctioned and I suffered visual loss, fine motor control loss, some gross motor control, seizures. It is no different to me than when I fell and broke my wrist. It's just that my wrist healed more quickly. I don't think that the damage done from abandonment and attachment issues will ever heal.

Some people develop cancer. Some people have heart conditions or high blood pressure. Some people have a genetic predisposition to complicated brain chemistry that causes depression or other so-called 'psychiatric illness.' And some people suffer injuries that affect them. A 'psychiatric' injury is no less valid or serious than a physical one. I don't think that it is productive to separate the psychiatric from the physiological, because they are both aspects of your whole being.

Yes, I am preaching to the choir here. The 'stigma' of perceived 'mental' problems angers me. I get furious at people who tell me to 'do something about it' or 'get over it' or 'stop being so pathetic'. This society is so f*cked up in its thinking.

I don't like to nitpick over technicalities. I hate conflict and tension. Suffice to say, I find this place mostly consoling because we all try to understand each other.

Thus, I don't think it is productive to 'classify' except to understand how to heal or cope.

Sky, I liked your lists. It helps to break down the generalizations into specific issues.... helps to understand the various aspects of my depression vs. my PTSD vs. my generalized anxiety.

Am I making any sense?