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could I have a mental illness?
my name is Rachel and iam a 22 year old female and lately i've noticed that Iam fine during the winter but when it gets closer to the summer iam more depressed and iam not depressed at all during the winter or could it be that I have a lot of bad memories during the summer time like a week before I turn 22 which is on april 4th I was molested by my dad 19 years ago. my best friend died on father's day,my dad died when I was 12 and father's day is coming up, my dad's b-day is in may and my best friends birthday is in july.
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Hi, I'm old enough to be your grandfather and someone who suffers from depression. While I'm not a doctor and none of us on this site are; suffering from depression allows me to know of the symptoms.
You have a number of stressors that anniversary at the start of the summer. It is understandable that this would cause you to be in somewhat of a down mood at that time of year. How long you remain down would indicates' whether or not this was symptomatic of depression.
The one thing that stands out in your writing and would be another cause of depression, possibly relationship problems, is the molestation by your dad. You would have been 3 years old at the time and would I be correct in saying that most likely professional help was not given to you. Probably because it was felt you were to young to remember what happened.
If I am correct in my thinking I apologize for those who felt this way. This had to have been a very traumatic event in your life and one that would not be forgotten but would also have a life long effect on you if left unaddressed professionally.
While I do not think you are totally symptomatic of depression, and I could be wrong as I may not have all the facts here. I still feel that based on the molestation and that you do feel very down at a specific time of the year, being examined by a psychologist is a good idea. You may also want to be examined by a psychiatrist to see if antidepressants will be effective in treating you or if talk therapy with the psychologist is enough.
When picking a psychologist it is important to find someone you are comfortable talking with as you will be talking to someone about some very personal aspects of your life. This is necessary if you want to unburden and learn how to deal with these stressors. You may have to go through more than one or to psychologists to find someone your comfortable with; this is normal. I myself went through 3 before finding someone I could comfortably talk to.
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It is very possible, but we can't diagnose you.
If you think you have a mental illness, talk to your family doctor and see if you can get a referral to a psychiatrist and a counselor. Some people do both. A psychiatrist can prescribe medication if it is needed. A counselor will do the hard part; helping you work through your issues. It's 25% medication, 25% counselling, 50% homework (what you do once you get out of your therapy session).
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