Mystical Meditations

Hi, I was diagnosed with PTSD when I was about 21, when my previous husband demanded that I see a psychiatrist. At about age 27 I was diagnosed with Premenstral Disphoric Disorder (PMDD), my husband refers to that as PMS times 1,000! Soon after that I went to my doctor and said that I felt I had Bipolar, he told me I had medical student's disease, because I was in college studying mental illness. A year later I went to another doctor who diagnosed me with Bipolar, I was shocked, furious, and lost all at once. Within the past four years I have also been diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder.

This path is trying, to say the least, but nothing hurts more than to watch an offspring navigating the channels of mental health ... I want to know what is wrong, but fear he will have the same battle as me. He is in the military, so quite a distance away. I also have a daughter diagnosed at age 14 with an unspecified mood disorder. I fear for her as she will be leaving for college in the fall.

My question is honestly a generalization, what came first, the trauma or the mental illness?

Thank you for starting this conversation jerics