I am a 30 year old single mother living with schizo-affective disorder, PTSD, and severe chronic pain caused by a collagen and connective-tissue disorder similar to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I've been having a pretty hard time for quite a while now; I've been in severe denial about it and I have a hard time not pretending I'm fine. I act like I'm doing very well, like I'm happy and coping, so often it's hard to turn it off and really be myself. I hate this...

I was diagnosed with Schizo-Affective Disorder and PTSD when I was 17. I no longer take any type of psychiatric medicine as I have very untolerable effects from them. I am on SSI/SSD due to my being unable to take medicines. I have been on nearly every psych med out there except for MAIO's (I refuse to try them due to the food restrictions and severe side-effects). 

My first hospitalization was when I was 17. I had been dealing with severe depression for many years prior to that. I was hospitalized again at ages 19 and 20. I been more-or-less stable for the last nine years. I've had at least two or three instances where I probably should've been hospitalized since then, and one instance where I nearly was, but didn't end up being due to insurance reasons and the likelihood that my "episode" was actually a severe med reaction (which, lo-and-behold, it WAS) and not a "true" psych issue. 

I've very recently (like in the last few weeks) been definitively diagnosed with ADD - attention-deficit disorder. It's been brought to my attention that I've had this my whole life, and this may very well be the underlying cause of a LOT of my issues. I take this to be quite a REVELATION and am very interested in learning all I can about ADD - especially "undaignosed" cases, or people that went undiagnosd most of their lives, as I've heard this can adversely affect the brain in a different way than being diagnosed early on can... I don't know, it could just be someone's random theory.