Totally! I'm 52 and was only diagnosed BP this July. I had been on Prozac for a couple of years - prior to that I toughed it out (not a good idea, since I had years of irrational behavior, including panic attacks, depression and hypomanic phases in which I was quite productive but drove everyone else nuts!). The Prozac worked good for a while because I was in a depressive state, then it sent me into something that was hypomanic with spikes of manic. I'm now on Lamictal and it's doing great for the manic, but I have short depressions that are way more intense than before. The thing is, BP is hard to diagnose - especially BP II. There are a lot of symptoms that mimic other diseases - depression, of course, and anxiety, ADD, Borderline Personality Disorder. You can still get the proper meds from your GP, and even get online therapy if you need to. A lot of the therapy treatments for BP II are behavioral or cognitive (or both) and because they are about doing things, you can also get books and work through them yourself. I learned about Dialectical Behavior Therapy on this forum and got a workbook. It's really great and you start doing exercises right off the bat.

Anyway, the best thing to do is to get the right diagnosis and the rightt meds, try some kind of therapy, keep coming here (everyone is GREAT), and try to put the past behind you. Onward and upward!