Melcaitie's Story of Survival |
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Monday, 21 June 2004 |
Posted by: melcaitie on Monday, June 21, 2004
Hi! My name is Melanie; I am 30 years old and live in Cape Town South Africa. I'll just give you a brief over view of my life as I feel that it has all contributed to where I am at in my life now. I came from a very happy, loving family, mom, dad and an older brother, unfortunately my dad passed away suddenly when I was 12 years old, I can remember having my first bout of anxiety/depression then, I developed a "separation anxiety" problem in that I was afraid to leave my mom, even to go to school in case Something happened to her too.
My mom also started having anxiety attacks and started drinking a lot and I not knowing what these attacks were was terrified that she was very ill. Eventually after therapy for all of us things settled down but my brother started taking heavy drugs and basically disappeared from our lives for a few years, he too eventually sorted his problem out.
By the time I was 17 I was on an anti depressant for my anxiety and I was coping but then I started getting stomach trouble, the docs put it down to stress because of my personality type. When I was 18 I met a wonderful guy and was in a relationship with him when he was killed in a car accident, afterwards my depression got worse, I met someone on the rebound and married him.
When I was 21, during this time I was still having problems with anxiety/depression/my stomach. After being married for about 6 months I found out my husband was a substance abuser, when I confronted him, he hit me; this was the beginning of a vicious cycle of abuse. I left him a few times but always went back. It’s hard to explain why; you have to be living it to understand.
When I was 25 I fell pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful little girl in July 1999, shortly afterwards my health deteriorated rapidly, I was in constant pain, diarrhea, vomiting, weight loss, fevers, eventually I was admitted for emergency surgery, four abscesses in my small intestine perforated, the diagnosis was Crohns disease, which is what had been plaguing me all those years. For those of you who don't know Crohns is an auto immune disease like Lupus or MS it is not stress or anxiety related it is genetic, stress can aggravate it as it can any illness but it is not the cause of it, there is also no cure for it.
In January 2002 I eventually left my husband for good, we are now divorced. I am in a wonderful relationship with the most amazing man and for most of the time I am ok with my depression and anxiety although recently it has started up again.
I'm on Ciprimal for depression. My Crohns is active again(had almost 3 year remission) but I am on maintenance therapy to try get it under control, unfortunately I have a stricture now in the small intestine but my doctor is trying to avoid more surgery.
I'm an aroma therapist, I enjoy reading, going out, watching movies, swimming, horse riding and listening to music... that's about it for now I think!
Melcaitie
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Last Updated ( Monday, 19 November 2007 )
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