We were so close … you were my golden angel! How could I have let this happen? Was it all my fault? Our faults?
Of course not, it was no one’s fault. But that’s the first thought that you have … at the time of the diagnosis. And for a long time afterwards, too. It’s natural to blame yourself initially. After all, there’s a lot of stigma and ignorance surrounding mental illness in society.
I’d struggled myself with ongoing emotional difficulties during most of my childhood and adolescence. That is, until I discovered the right sort of treatment and “got to the bottom” of my problems. After therapy and a momentous breakdown, things suddenly cleared. I no longer had to live with the long-term, ongoing depressive symptoms. The “black dog” had disappeared for good. Of course, a certain amount of anxiety remained, but that seemed normal to me by this time.