Betsi Goutal

Yeah, pretty much... :)

Throughout my life, I've dealt with a number of disabilities, all of them being what it classed as "invisible illness" or sometimes "invisible disability."

Firstly, I have Asperger's Disorder (also known as Asperger's Syndrome). Asperger's is an Autistic Spectrum Disorder, a more high-functioning one than what many people think of when they hear the word "autism". Though thanks to major media like Grey's Anatomy featuring characters with Asperger's, it's becoming more well-known and to a certain extent better understood.

I've also battled with depression throughout my life. Some of it has been due to traumatic events such as the death of my cousin when I was nine, or more recently the death of my father. To a large degree though, my depression is distinctly seasonal in nature, and I'm one of the most hypersensitive individuals with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) I've ever heard of. This is probably in part because I'm an introverted, geeky, homebody type and quite frankly I don't get out of the house enough. Particularly when I am lax in my therapies, I can suffer fairly badly from a string of exceedingly cloudy days - which unfortunately is all too common in New England. Thankfully, I've learned what therapies work for me to lessen my symptoms and so it no longer cripples my day-to-day life. It's still a struggle, but it's a battle I feel like I'm winning.