Hello my name is Heather, I am a mom of 3 sons and happily married to my husband for 15 years. I was born and raised in Central Florida. I have been a stay at home mom most of my childrens lives; they are now 22,19, & 14. My oldest and youngest sons live at home and my 19 yo is in the Army.
I have been dealing with mental health issues in one form or another my whole life. I was sexually abuse as a child at around age 4-6 by a family friend, when I was older about 10-12 I was abused by my moms "at the time boyfriend" and also I was physically and mentally abused by my own mom until I moved away from home at 18, then she continued mental abuse up until the time i got with my husband and then got married. My life has always been a roller coaster of events. Amazingly enough with the counseling that I did receive over the years I was able to raise my son with out any type of abuse.
Fast forward to the present day; In 2000 after having my last son I became sick and was diagnosed with Crohn's disease which is at this time in remission. Since 2006 I have finally given multiple diagnoses of health issues I had been having since a young child when my mom told me I was a hypocondriach. I have a list of mostly auto immune diseases that overlap one another such as Fibromyalgia, Systemic Lupus ( Mixed Connective Tissue Disease), Peripheral Neuropathy, Scleroderma, Anklyosing Spondylitis, Frequent Migraines, Reynaud's Syndrome, Sleep Apnea, Major Depressive Disorder, Anxiety/ Panic Attacks, and more. I have chronic pain and chronic fatigue so needless to say I don't get much accomplished each day. At night I sleep for about 1 hour intervals, I wake up in pain stay awake for a while then lay back down to try and sleep again and this cycle goes on until I finally give up and stay awake until a nap during the day. I am supposed to be on a lot of different meds but my husbands employer will not be offering health insurance until the end of the year and we are hoping that we will be able to afford it. With out insurance my meds run about $2100.00 a month. Plus the cost of all the different specialists I need to see and frequent labs and x-rays to monitor my conditions. I do not qualify for SSD or SSI because I have not worked enough to have work credits and my husband makes more than $1800 a month so the SSI is out of the question.
So here I am, I am looking for ways to better deal with my depression so that on those really bad days that I am in so much Pain that I want it all to be over I have the knowledge and coping skills to make it through another day.
That is me in a nutshell. If you would like to know more and have questions please feel free to ask.
