I don't know about it being over diagnosed.

But as for bipolar disorder not happening in kids that's not true. I've had bipolar disorder since I was a kid. I knew I was different when I was about 7, knew something was seriously wrong with me by the time I was 9.

There were lots of doctors appointments and lots of specialists and therapists trying to figure out what's wrong with Bunni.

I was having severe, feel like my heart is going to burst, trying not to hyperventatlite anxiety attacks almost daily starting around 12 years old. I had a therapist. I told him, I get in situations and it feels like I'm having a heart attack. He said. Kids don't get heart attacks.

I went from deepest depression thinking about kiling myself all day every day, of being so depressed I would just sit or lay in one position for hours, unable to respond to anyone or do anything. Going to the bathroom was a monumental task. A shower was like thinking about doing a marathon. Going to school was....horrid. I had nightmares of being in war through out that time. EVerything was war.

And this alternated with extreme rage. I would have hysterical melt downs that were like a toddlers tantrum when they are too tired. ANd then I'd have the black rages - the anger and I would lash out, trash my room, say nasty things to classmates when I was in school. I remember wanting to bust all the windows in the house. Another time I got a hold of some matches and went to a corner of our 2 acres and set flowers on fire. To destroy things.

I fought with my mother, my brother, my dad. My brother never wanted to have friends over because I was a time bomb, and would go off.

Then ther ewas the hypersexualiation. I won't go into details.

I never had the creative positive experience with bipolar disorder that some people have. It's all been destructive. Racing thoughts, paranoid thinking, obsessive thoughts

The closest I got to a diagnosis was "atypical Depression" when I was 16 and when I was 17 I got some lithium to deal with my rages. Because I was driving and road rage was becoming an issue.

I've always had racing thoughts. I've always talked fast, at times so fast no one could understand me. I went over spend but I'd go to the library and check out all the books on a subject and read about it obsessively thinking I would write a book or go to college and become a whatever. I made plans. Grandiose plans.

I was dx'd with bipolar disorder in 2001 after I tried to kill myself. Since then every doctor and therapist I've talked to has said 1) I have bipolar disorder for sure and 2) and how I describe (or how my parents because a couple of therapists talked to my parents ) my childhood is consistent with bipolar disorder.

I took the quiz to that's attached to Psych Central as I am now. I score about 24. I took it again for my life before I was diaganosed and I got a 56. Mom is visiting me so I had her help me score it for when I was a kid and I got a 56 again.

My shrink told me once, "There's no such thing as textbook anything because textbooks have to generalize, however, saying that, you are textbook bipolar disorder".

Now, my current therapist says I'm one of a few of her patients that actually has bipolar disorder , she sees more patients who were dx'd bipolar but later are determined to have Boderline Personality Disorder. So there's that. I don't know how accurate that is.

Bipolar disorder may be overdiagnosed, I don't know. I do know that kids can have bipolar disorder and it's not just "ups and downs".

I also have never used illegal drugs or abused prescription medicine (except for the suicide attempt) and only drank regularly for a few months.

I never wanted to try drugs and I didn't really want to start drinking but I finally did and hey being drunk was a good excuse for acting like an over sexed asshole. I stayed away though, because starting around the time I was 12 I wished I had access to drugs or sleeping pills or booze so I could get ****ed up and pass out and not have to deal with my life. There was no alcohol in the house, no money, and no friends and too much anxiety to try and approach anyone at school about getting drugs.

The very fact I wanted to make myself pass out was scary and it made me scared that if I tried any of them I 'd get addicted. So I didn't have my first drink until I was in my early 20s. And I did a abuse alcohol when I was manic, but it was only for a few months and only because I had started dating a loser alcoholic. I only drank at bars and never at home and, like I said, it was a way to give a reason for being weird and offputting.