Well from what I know about depression, PTSD and PTSS and also Bi - polar ( which I was once incorrectly diagnosed as having), you are half way to healing with these statements. Well done.

Music is one of the best forms of self - medication. Music, exercise and writing as a form of expressing your feelings work wonders for helping to alleviate the feelings of self imprisonment that depression causes and are vital far as I'm concerned.

Seek therapy, continue with your music -- you'll find a lot of very talented and influential musicians actually have suffered from Bi - polar, PTSD and depression. Artists that come to mind and speak to me in volumes are Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Beth Orton, The Flaming lips, Whitley ( Australian indie artist - I reccomend!), Feist, Broken social scene, Shall I keep going?

This forum is fantastic for sharing your feelings, gaining insight from others and educating yourself, but the bottom line is, you need professional advice and counselling as well. Get two or three opinions. And from my experience -- you don't need traditional medicine necessarily. Have a look at the thread about natural therapies in the PTSD forum, there is some wonder advice in a link to another forum there posted by Anthony. He knows his sh*t that man. He is an inspiration and I'd take my hat off to him if I was wearing one when we met.

There are good people here, carers and sufferers alike. I have learn so much just reading other peoples experiences. You may even find the trauma diaries beneficial. But get diagnosed by a few doctors and take it from there. There are natural psychosomatic treatments about, my yoga masters teacher (yogi) for one. There are a lot of ways to learn how to heal, so get to it - you got a lot of reading ahead of you beautiful.