MommaMM

Thank you, everyone; I really appreciate your kind and generous words of welcome and encouragement. I can already tell I'm among friends and am grateful for this space to share our experiences together. I look forward to getting to know all of you as you wish to share.

Hello, everyone. Just joined the community today and wanted to extend a warm greeting and gratitude for your supportive community. I'm a 50-something woman who has struggled with Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder for most of my life, although I was only formally diagnosed and treated in my early 30s. I was also diagnosed with ADD as a midlife adult (when I was a child ADD was rarely diagnosed in girls who didn't "act out" in the classroom). This latter diagnosis, and my resulting treatment, has brought a mixture of relief and grief: relief that I'm better able to function, but grief that being diagnosed so late in my career seems to have permanently closed some doors to me, career-wise, and I fear I've missed opportunties that would have been rewarding if I'd pursued them earlier. Of course, that regret (and my perceptions about my career being "over") might be a function of my under-controlled depression. I find myself tortured by thoughts of under-achievement and struggling to make sense of how to recover when the world looks so hostile to an unemployed woman in her 50s. Perhaps connecting with others who understand will be a key to breaking out of this sense that I've ruined my life. In any case, thank you for being here and for listening. I wish everyone peace and good health, and I look forward to sharing our stories in a spirit of mutual support and loving kindness.

Hello! I'm new here too, and I look forward to getting to know you and all of our new friends in this forum. Seems as if we've found a wonderful community.

Hello, Allison. I'm new here too, as of today! Glad to be your newbie buddy and looking forward to getting to know you and all our new friends. May peace be with you.