Well, I pretty much always knew something was wrong with me. As a kid I had trouble making friends and was bullied. At one point I thought I must be some type of alien from another planet. Because it wasn't just hard to make friends. It was like I had a big flashing sign on me and I was avoided like the plague. And people (not just kids) seemed to think it was perfectly okay to treat me like I wasn't a person. I mean, the things people have done and said to me as a child are incredible. Complete strangers would walk up to my mother and say "who is this?" and she would say "may daughter," and they would say, "oh, that's too bad." What did that mean. After my mom died the kids at school told me that i killed her. That I gave her cancer. Etc... I mean, horrible things!

So, I was always depressed. My whole family used to tell me I was too sensitive. I just always felt "wrong." I didn't start to wonder if I had bipolar until I was about 24 years old. But, I didn't see my first psychiatrist until I was 26 and I didn't get my diagnosis until 30. But being diagnosed was more like a "thank goodness now I know what this is!" And then finding other people who have bipolar and seeing that, hey, I'm not so weird, I just have bipolar and so do you! And look! That weird thing that happens to me also happens to you! That was comforting.