Dear Jaz:

My heart goes out to your daughter and you. Seeing a therapist is a step in the right direction. I have simple virilizing CAH and counseling helped me get my thoughts in order. Rational behavior modification was a big help but non of this is easy. What I worked on in counseling took about a year to be come concrete. I’m able to recognize if I am depressed or if it is the hormones fluctuating because of the CAH.  Because of the rational behavior modification it doesn’t take me long to rationalize my way to reasonable behavior and thinking. I think that this type of counseling only works with mild depression, I really don’t know about the more serious depressions. 

For me depression was the targeted symptom but it was just a bit off. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome seems to be a better fit. To make a long story short, I consider everything a threat and it goes back to the surgeons that thought they were helping me but my psyche tended to think of everything in extremes. It went from being freaked out about medical people to being paranoid that everyone in the world was against me. Extreme stuff, I’m not like that now and I credit it to the counseling and not wanting to be like that. 

I have the ability to weigh alot, I used to weigh 175 with the stretch marks on my arms and legs. I started walking every day  not to get the weight off  but to clear my head. The weight coming off was the least of my concerns, I was just so happy to do something that calmed my mind even if it was just for a little while. You asked about Cushing’s syndrome in your post, I have that and to be precise all the different specialist called it slight Cushing’s syndrome.

How is the dose of your daughter’s meds is she on the correct dose? I was on 10 mgs of Pred, the Endo’s thought it was SUPER but I was having emotional melt downs from it. I begged the one to do something, he wouldn’t do a darn thing and mean while I was having emotional extremes from one to the other. Finally, I bargained with him and asked him if I could lower my dose and if the blood tests came back bad then I would go back to the higher dose. He then lowered the dose, I emotionally felt a little better and the blood tests were fine. Now, I have an Endo that changed me from Pred to Hydrocortisone and emotionally WOW I feel so much better and react to situations in a completely different manner. I’m still on the emotional side of the world but I now have a better handle on my feelings.

This stuff does take awhile but it’s worth it. I’m college educated, my biggest concern right now is going back to school and taking a few more credit hours to obtain certification for a job that will give me a salary to make a good living and buy my own house in a nice neighborhood. I tell you this Jaz because I know that your daughter can fight hard and beat her depression to get anything she wants in life. Girls & Boys with CAH are made tough!  We might go through a lot but we’re still tough and we come out on top!!!  

Aimee