How long have you suffered from mental health symptoms?

Formally speaking, I believe my anxiety symptoms started in my 30's, after a whirlwind of really bad personal tragedies knocked me down repeatedly. I did not recognize it as anxiety, per se. I put it down to early menopause, as my late mother had developed some of the same kinds of problems around the time she started menopause. It was the classic stuff---trouble sleeping (when I had never experience that before in my life), suddenly feeling very agitated and perspiring heavily for almost no reason, the jitters and trouble gathering my thoughts, & making myself understood. There was something else, also completely new to me: a touch of burgeoning social anxiety.

It was about 7 years after that, I wad diagnosed with major depressive disorder, as well. It crept up on me like a stealthy burglar. Due to the fact that I had no one in my life who could give me wise advice, and also because I had come to Canada from the States, and wasn't set-up with my own GP yet, it took me almost two years to get concerned enough to make an appointment for a doctor. I was newly-married, and the symptoms were not too awful, yet.

My depression had gotten very very bad because I delayed seeing someone about it. I was terrified, and paralyzed, at the thought of the inevitable rounds of medication-taking, and struggling through all of that 'til I found one that worked for me. In truth, I probably should have been hospitalized for a bit, in those early days.

It's been an almost 25 year journey of discovery and education for me, all told. I'm doing much better in the last year or so, and am no longer on an antidepressant. I am still equipped with anti-anxiety meds for the odd situation, which still happens occasionally.

Bless you for wanting to help with the eradication of stigma around MI's. At least we live in a time where these things are finally being discussed!