I'm 20M, I've had depression since I was 13, around the same time that I developed a serious gender dysphoria. I've been struggling with it all for a long time now, and recently I started thinking about everything surrounding it.
See, I stumbled upon an article about symptoms of child abuse, and I started wondering about all the disturbing stuff from my past - the fact that I was having sexual fantasies at 6, looking for porn around the same time, always trying to hide and seclude myself from everyone else, fearing rape whenever I'm out after dark, masturbation addiction since 11, with lots of guilt, shame, and wanting to stop even at the beginning, blank spaces in memory, all that stuff.
So, seeing as my anxiety goes through the roof nowadays and won't go away, I;m wondering if it's all some sort of "red flags" for some sort of abuse as a child? Or is it most likely completely unrelated? I know I should see a therapist, but if it could be something abuse related, I'd like to know beforehand.
Thanks.
If you haven't started seeing a psychiatrist to discuss all this - do that first.
>>18530896
Whether you were abused is not the primary question. You are unhappy and confused right now. Shrinks exist to help you get unconfused and happy. Don't go looking for a specific answer because very few things in life have one-and-only-one cause.