Anxiety Disorders and Depression: Online Education About Medications and Side Effects

I have first hand experience dealing with depression and anxiety. Growing up I was always shy. I was so shy I wouldn't hold up my hand in class if I had to go to the bathroom. When I was nine years old my parents divorced. Me, my mom and my sister traveled all the way from Illinois to California. My parents didn't tell me they were divorcing. I thought we were just going to visit my grandparents in California. It was my first time traveling in an airplane and I was kind of excited and scared at the same time. I didn't really get to say a proper good-bye to my dad and my favorite grandma, (who was crying her eyes out). I learned about the the divorce once we were in California.

Adjustments and an Abusive Relationship

Me and my sister adjusted to our new situation. Shortly after moving to California, my mom met a man she fell in love with, but he decided he didn't think things would work out. My mom was crushed and vulnerable. We found out my dad remarried, (not from my dad), but from my aunt. My mom was very vulnerable and her self esteem crushed. My mom rushed into marrying a man who abused me, my sister and my mother. Thank goodness my mom divorced him after a year. In those days you didn't think about going to counseling or talking about abuse. Everything was just pushed under the rug as they say, like it never happened. People are more educated and aware of abuse these days, thank goodness.

Marraige Number Three

After this experience I became less interested in school and was extremely shy with people I didn't know. I also felt nervous often. My sister decided to move back to Illinois to live with my dad and his new wife. My mom remarried again and I really liked this man. I looked up to him and he was very good to me. He drank beer all the time, but it didn't seem to affect him. My sister moved back with us after three years. Her experience living with our dad and step mom didn't work out very well. She started hanging out with the wrong crowd and using drugs. Our step dad started drinking more and his whole personality changed. I couldn't take living with a drug addict, an alcoholic and a mother who was in complete denial.

History Repeats Itself