Hello @fmbs25. Reading your story that began at such a young age truly hit me. I'm reminded of several ailments I experienced as a teen and just chose to ignore. One was arthritis; the other, HBP. I didn't even tell my parents the symptoms I experienced because of allowing external elements to cause me stress. Once I discovered that HBP was in my family, together with stroke, heart problems and diabetes, I couldn't ignore my family history any longer. My parents both died from massive heart attacks, HBP, and stroke.

I live daily on several medications for HBP; diabetes, and heart. That's stressful enough because of the side-effects from each and all the different medications racking my insides simultaneous. But I try to deal with it.

Writing, especially fiction writing and creating digital art has been my savior to calm me. I allow the darkness to spill onto the page through those mediums.

Hope you feel yourself soon. Take care of yourself and don't allow outside stressors to evade your personal space.