Esther's Story (Brisbane, Australia)

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I decided to opt for a natural form of HRT in the hope that it would get rid of all the symptoms.
 
Within the next 2 months all the physical symptoms had abated considerably but I was still on an emotional roller coaster ride and taking my family with me.
 
One morning, when I found my fist raised at my 8-year old son, I knew it was time to get help.
 
I felt like I was standing on the edge of a black hole and that I could just take one step into the abyss and disappear.
 
In my mind, I had become a bad mother and wife  - I felt so far removed from the loving, happy easygoing person I used to be.
 
The doctor diagnosed me with depression and put me on medication.
 
From the moment I started taking the anti-depressants my mind was filled with thoughts of how soon I could stop taking them.
 
I felt so ashamed and like such a failure. Why couldn't I just cope with life?? So many people had it much worse than me. I knew I was blessed in so many ways so I must be weak and pathetic to need anti-depressants.
 
They helped though...within a few months I was feeling much calmer and if not quite happy yet, I would say that I was content.
 
I had started working part time in an industry I loved and things were definitely looking up. 
 
I weaned myself off the anti-depressants 6 months after I started them - the minimum recommended time.
 
Within 6 months I was back on them. 
 
Dealing with a very sensitive and stressful family situation and increasing financial pressure, I could feel myself slipping back towards the abyss.
 
Again I felt the shame and stigma that so often comes with the diagnosis of depression. It was like a big, dirty secret that I couldn't share with anyone.
 
Thank God for my children - they saved me. The thought of turning back into that person who could raise a fist to her own child, was what sent me scurrying back to the doctor. 
 
If not for them I probably wouldn't have gone back - I probably would have succumbed to the pull of that black hole...

An excerpt by Esther Andrews
For 'Made Beautiful by Scars- real women's stories'
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