I started having psychosis at age 11, when I finally talked to my parents about it, they put their hands on me and prayed, spoke in tounges and cast the devil out, yes that's how my parents dealt with things. I had depression my while childhood, saw counsellors starting at age 5. I slowly just stopped talking to my parents. When I was a teen and homeless I began having servere mania and the psychosis continued. So I had multiple suicide attempts by 17. When I was 17 I got put in a semi independent foster home, I was also raped shortly before, so my foster mom got me into a therapist, then psychiatrist. Then I was quickly dx with bipolar 1. That's kinda of a quick version but that's pretty much what was going on. I was having a lot of mania with psychosis. At one point I tried to get the police involved when I was psychotic, I thought a girl was going to kill me, I put myself in some dangerous situations because of the psychosis. I wish I would have been able to get help sooner.

The psychiatrist put me on sleeping pills ( can't remember what they were) and Prozac alone. I ended up having severe psychosis and I quit taking meds immediately, that really put me off seeking anymore treatment.

When I got dx again at 27 I was very manic for the last 9 months of college and then I hit an extremely bad depression, given my history I was dx with bipolar 1 again very quickly. I smartened up at that point and stopped being in denial that I was mentally ill.