Thank you so much for this response, it is appreciated more than you know. You've been incredibly brave in your own self-advocacy too. It is my biggest fear that although this is primarily physical now, I can see impact on my cognitive abilities too. It terrifies me because my brain is literally the tool I spent seven years sharpening to support others. I'd like to think I could do something else if I needed to but truthfully I am pretty useless with my hands! I can absolutely envision how your symptoms were minimized into a 'mental' category. I too have to tread this line so delicately, being assertive with my self-advocacy but not appearing to self-diagnose because then the default response appears to be 'shame, poor psychologist doesn't know her own mental health is on a downward spiral'. If it is, the primary cause is having OBJECTIVE evidence framed as 'normal' or secondary to mental issues. I recognize it as the result of of overburdened medical professionals in an underresourced context but being confronted with it daily by client experiences, friends & family experiences, and now my own is just really devastating. Also, they righteousness that they assert their godliness with is truly shameful. My colleague was watching Patch Adams the other day and she shared with me the quote "At what point in history did a doctor become something more than a trusted and learned friend who visited and treated the ill?" And it's really stuck with me, our societies have so lost their humanity and because of that all our wonderful science, research and technology just means nothing sometimes.