I myself do not suffer from bipolar, but hoped to get some insight from people who do. From before I remember to fifth grade, I had a very close friend. We were rarely apart, spending hours in the woods on "adventures", camped out at eachother's houses etc. At the start of the fifth grade, my friend suddenly would have nothing to do with me. No explaination, no warning. Our houses were in the same direction, and he told me flat out that he no longer wanted to walk home with me.

We saw a little of each other, same school, over the next few years, but for the most part, went our seperate ways.Every now and then I would try to be friends again, but was always told to leave him alone. During my sophomore year in highschool, I noticed that I had not seen him around in the halls for quite a while and called his house. He would not speak to me. We met up after graduation, and he told me he had been diagnosed as bipolar. He didn't give specifics, just that there had been a suicide attempt and he had "lost it" at school once and jumped through a ground floor window.

Years later, I wrote him a letter, and he said he would prefer if i stayed out of his life. He also said there were no hard feelings. This has haunted me for years. I felt betrayed when he cut me off in fifth grade, but as far as I know, I never did anything to him. Somewhere in there, he must have thought i did or he would not have written "no hard feelings". I can understand his not wanting me around now because it probably brings up a time in his life that was very difficult and painful. What I can't understand is the sudden shutting me out in the first place. Could he have been entering an early stage of his illness in fifth grade that was not serious enough to have been noticed? I knew of others in high school that seemingly lost it overnight that were diagnosed with bipolar, but didn't know them well enough to have noticed their behavior prior to. Is it common for this to begin with small oddities that lead up to a seemingly sudden breakdown years later?

Thanks,
Sam2