Years Of Poltergeist Occurrences?

I am a 37 year old female living in Dallas, Texas. I have been bothered and harassed by something since I was about eight years old. It sounds so crazy that I have only told a few people.

When I was young, I would "feel" things in the house that I grew up in. It was during these years that I first experienced paralysis during sleep, as I felt something hovering above my body. If that was not enough to terrify me, I started feeling the presence of something malevolent on a continual basis. I would sleep with my closet light on and eventually became an insomniac.

The most terrifying thing I experienced in that house, which I have never seen it as a 'home', was when I was fourteen and on the way to the bus stop for school. I realized that I had forgotten something and decided to go back in to get it. As I was walking up to the house, I saw a cloaked, black faceless figure in my father's bedroom. It stopped me in my tracks. I just stared and when it noticed me, it moved the curtains back over itself. I ran screaming all the way to the bus stop. I told my father about it and he said to pray.

I suspected he had experienced strange things too, although he would not admit it. I moved out of that house at eighteen. I rarely went back and haven't been in there for ten years.

There have been so many instances of feeling the malevolent presence. It would take all night to write about, so I'll update you from the past year.

I had been living with family friends for the past year and so many months. This family is extremely religious; the husband is a deacon at my former church. I feel that that information is noteworthy. I am also a Christian.

The moment I stepped in that house I felt two different entities. One was the familiar one from all these years and another was a spirit of an older man. I stayed up late at night a lot on the computer, and I would feel like someone was watching me in the kitchen. Also, I constantly felt this spirit, a ghost, I think, in the utility room. I never felt the spirit anywhere else in the house. I can't tell you how many things came up missing, it became a running joke.

The most disturbing though, was this evil presence I continued to feel and eventually see as a black shadow in the corner of the room, high up to the ceiling. I would hear soft muffled talking and feel something touching my feet and legs. This happened, off and on, the entire time I was there. I moved out eight weeks ago and up until a couple of weeks ago, I thought all of this had ended. Now, I am feeling this evil entity again at night.

I have been researching things and I wonder if this is maybe a poltergeist. I am bipolar, not psychotic and I take my medication, so please, respectfully, do not tell me I may have been hallucinating.

Could my depression and childhood issues from abuse cause this thing? If anyone could shed some light on how or why something would "follow" me all this time, I would appreciate it. I constantly pray in Jesus' name out loud. Please help!