Hi GiGie
You sound like a very intuitive person. You mention trusting your gut and you've followed what has led you here.
Based on my own experience, I've found intuitive people are typically highly sensitive people. They're very tuned in. Being tuned in has both an up side and a down side. The up side can involve the ability to easily sense the beginnings of a stressful situation or what is a potentially depressing situation. You can see things coming before other people do. The down side involves life being highly stressful and deeply depressing at times when there are few strategies in place for managing such an ability. Would I be right in saying you're a 'feeler'? What I mean is are you easily triggered to feeling/s? Most feelers would have felt the words 'You're way too sensitive. You need to toughen up'. Personally, this comment typically sends my nervous system straight in 'fight mode'. I can easily feel what this comment does to me. While I used to see my sensitivity as a fault that needs fixing, I've now come to see it as an ability. Seeing it as an ability flips perspective. Nowadays, I'm inclined to respond to this comment with 'Yes, I'm highly sensitive. Such heightened sensitivity gives me the ability to easily sense (feel) a ridiculous comment, such as the one you just made' 🙂
The reason for me mentioning all this comes down to the approach you take when speaking to people about your anxiety and depression. Instead of approaching them with 'I've been diagnosed with GAD and depression', maybe you could consider the following - 'I've been recently diagnosed as having the ability to easily sense what's stressful and what's deeply depressing. It's like while your volume level with these things is low or mid range, mine is high. I'm looking forward to finding ways to turn the volume down and understand myself better. Under the circumstances, I need people to be helpful in this process, as opposed to being critical and judgemental'. If you are a feeler, be prepared to feel their comments. Hopefully, everyone will lead you to feel inspiration. It can be in some people's nature to be naturally closed minded and depressing. Closed minded and depressing may sound a little like 'You've been seeing a shrink? They're just a bunch of money grabbing quacks'. Can you feel how depressing such a comment is? This feeling is telling you the person who gave you this 'advice' is full of poop. You can master getting a feel for poop and the people who speak it 🙂
