Hi Cariad here. I'm not sure if I did an intro ages ago when I first found this forum but as I haven't been active I'll do one now.

Female, 55, married, no kids. The pdoc who diagnosed me with BP1 said that he believed I've been BP since my middle teens based on details of my history. However, for most of my life pdocs and Ts just said I had major depression .. probably because they never saw me in mania and I didn't bring it up because I felt so damn good at those times! It was a relief to finally get a Dx and know that I could now be treated with the right meds and therapy. I was finally diagnosed at 49.

My pdoc is wonderful and I'm lucky to have found him, but he's now talking about retiring He's the first pdoc I've really been able to trust. This is mainly because a T sexually abused me when I was 20 (I was very vulnerable and my self-esteem was too low to take actions to stop him). Then I saw a pdoc who actually fell asleep during every session and the only thing he really said to me was "you have the lowest self-esteem of anyone I've ever met, so I don't see how I can help you". My current pdoc has very strong boundaries, respect for his patients and has been tremendously helpful.

Well, that's me