Ok, so I found this article on ADHD vs. childhood bipolar...
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1. Age of onset: ADHD is a lifelong condition, with symptoms apparent (although not necessarily impairing) by age seven. While we now recognize that children can develop BMD, this is still considered rare. The majority of people who develop BMD have their first episode of affective illness after age 18, with a mean age of 26 years at diagnosis.
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Like I said, I was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age. I didn't get diagnosed with bipolar until last year (age 17) but the symptoms were there earlier. The other thing is that my schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder was early-onset as well, so that could explain why the bipolar symptoms were there early.
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2. Consistency of impairment: ADHD is chronic and always present. BMD comes in episodes that alternate with more or less normal mood levels.
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That was pretty much my childhood attention-wise. Not sure about energy-wise?
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3. Mood triggers: People with ADHD are passionate, and have strong emotional reactions to events, or triggers, in their lives. Happy events result in intensely happy, excited moods. Unhappy events — especially the experience of being rejected, criticized, or teased — elicit intensely sad feelings. With BMD, mood shifts come and go without any connection to life events.
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I definitely have strong "happy" reactions. Not so much strong "sad" reactions unless something really bad happens. It's hard to tell whether my high moods were the cause or result of good things happening...
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4. Rapidity of mood shift: Because ADHD mood shifts are almost always triggered by life events, the shifts feel instantaneous. They are normal moods in every way, except in their intensity. They’re often called “crashes” or “snaps,” because of the sudden onset. By contrast, the untriggered mood shifts of BMD take hours or days to move from one state to another.
5. Duration of moods: Although responses to severe losses and rejections may last weeks, ADHD mood shifts are usually measured in hours. The mood shifts of BMD, by DSM-IV definition, must be sustained for at least two weeks. For instance, to present “rapid-cycling” bipolar disorder, a person needs to experience only four shifts of mood, from high to low or low to high, in a 12-month period. Many people with ADHD experience that many mood shifts in a single day.
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My moods don't change that quickly, I don't think... My high moods in adolescence lasted days, but that's either too long for ADHD or too short for bipolar...
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6. Family history: Both disorders run in families, but individuals with ADHD almost always have a family tree with multiple cases of ADHD. Those with BMD are likely to have fewer genetic connections.
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My grandfather was diagnosed with manic-depression, but I don't think anyone in my family has ADHD.