Yer, that does sound pretty tough. Very mentally and physically draining, exhaustive and enduring. These things are never nice. I can understand about the parents issues also, as my parents are in their 60's now, and they are looking after one of my sisters son's, their grandchild, because he was born to another father that she got pregnant too at a young age. Sure, he is 17 or so now, but still living at home with them, them still having to care for him until he gets a life off his own. He is a very withdrawn young fella, and I don't see him doing well on his own any time soon. I want to slap the piss out of my sister for doing this too them, and expecting them to fix her shit.

Faerie, what you described above though in relation to your depression, doesn't jump out at me as being something you where born with, because you got depressed after an event, being a relationship breakup. Is there more that I am missing, or is your depression always after an event? If this is the case, your just lacking the skills to deal with the events, hence the depression.

Depression by itself, whilst a significant problem, can be cure, even in relation to PTSD itself, though the depression you get with anxiety from PTSD, is a little different, as trauma is causing other issues to cause the depression, and not something you can directly control, though you can manage.