If someone had taken my 10-year-old self aside, an imaginative child lost in her mind, and told her that her struggles had legitimate names (such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and sensory processing disorder) and that help was available, she would’ve cried out of relief and possibly confusion, a mixture of the two.
On the other hand, if this same mysterious person from the future had told her she would also have severe mental illness as an adult, including diagnoses of bipolar I disorder, borderline personality disorder (BPD) and anorexia, that would lead to multiple hospitalizations, she would have not been able to process this information.
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