I'm 32 years old. I'm an aerospace engineer, but I wouldn't say I'm typical of my cohort.

My childhood was traumatizing. My 6'2" 250lb step-dad would lose control of himself on a weekly or monthly basis, screaming so loud that neighbors 3 doors down could hear, calling my mom a ****ing ***** and telling me that I need to move out. This started when I was 8.

My real father wasn't present at any point in my life. He died when I was 19.

In 7th grade I was truant for 3 weeks because I refused to get out of bed. The emotional chaos at home was exhausting.

High school was just a sequence of house parties as far as I recall. Did a lot of drugs.

So on and so forth, I ended up dropping out of high school and didn't turn it around until age 21 when I was finally diagnosed with major depression and prescribed Effexor. This drug really helped me get out of a bad place.

I proceeded to community college and then university. Did well in economics, psychology, and computer science. Spent a few years living on my own. It took me 8 years but I earned a bachelors of science in mathematics. Graduated when I was 28.

After graduating and landing my first job I spent another 2 years on my own. Then I had really big meltdown. Essentially on nothing more than impulse, I quit my job and moved to Oregon to work on a farm. Yeah, that kind of farm. Met a beautiful and intelligent girl out there and proceeded to completely **** her over by stealing her heart and then losing control of myself and calling her every name in the book. That's a paraphrase.

I've spent the last 2 years living at my mom's. I loath my employer and don't care much for the work. I recently realized where I want to take my career path. This is a new feeling. Since graduating I've basically just floated from one engineering role to the next without much of an idea of where each would take me. But now I have a vision of my future, and it's a great feeling. There are some drawbacks of my new plan, the role is quite niche, opportunities are scarce but do exist. I'm going for it.

So that's where I'm at. It seems I haven't really provided the nail here for you to hammer. Ehh. I'm sorry for how rude this sounds, but I would like to hear from any successful professionals out there who cope with depression. Engineers, architects, scientists, nurses, doctors, lawyers, and successful entrepreneurs or sales reps.

Are you out there? I need to know I'm not alone, and I want to hear your stories.

Thanks in advance