The $76K Project: Reboot

Originally published on The $76K Project on 12/16/2017 Among a few other mental health conditions that I've been diagnosed with over the years, major depression is something I grapple with on a regular, long-term basis.  I can pinpoint the exact month and year it showed up. I was 12. It was February. One day I was happy and stable; the next, I was not. Depression latched on, its grip relentless, and it hasn't let up since. I knew something was wrong (the suicidal thoughts and obsessive need to plan my own funeral clued me in), but it wasn't until I was 31 years old - a couple of years after my son was born - that I finally saw a therapist and a psychiatrist, got a diagnosis, and figured out how to ride out depressive episodes in a relatively healthy-ish way. This means that I spent almost 20 years of my life wrestling with mental illness pretty much on my own.   If that sounds like a terrible idea, you're right, but I did everything in my power to hide my condition. I c