When I was 13 my sister was dx Bipolar it was an aha situation.

At 16 I was dx by therapists (2) as depressed to in the alternative program I was in. I got job training and My GED half a year. Then entered Community college. The program was basically PHP for half a year with mixed ages. I left the school system after and with it all the mental health services. My old Addiction counselor tried to help me get therapy but I couldn’t without insurance. He saved my *** several times the next year from un dx mania. Even voicing his anger to my engagement but he just bailed me out less then a week before with the DEAN. I tried to get helped with my eating disorder several times. It fell on deaf ears even when pregnant.

At 21 after 2 week of being non-responsive my husband demanded I see a doctor or I'd be served divorce papers. I wasn’t even responding to my son and it wasn’t fair to him. We went to GP and dx depressed given AD but that just made me angry so we switched Ads. The next one made me homicidal so we stopped it & called the GP he said if its that bad take me to the ER. Yeah that didn't happen. We switched GP and my new patient apt. I was hypo manic immediately he stopped the new patient stuff tried to explain I was BPII and gave me depAkote and an appointment the next week. I crashed and he sent me to a Pdoc. Pdoc was an idiot I spent the next years in a mixed episode and tons of dx. Mostly psychotic I literally could not be left alone in a room by myself without me either injuring myself, breaking something or both for two years. I walked out with a dx. Of mood disorder nos & ED nos.

Skip a couple of years and voice my anger about forced treatment. My husband got an awesome job and then they changed his supervisor and he went spiraling down. It was finally to the point we had to get his meds or 'Id loose him. He'd already been reprimanded for telling a lady “what do you want me to do about it.” Before he got to take the meds he went (hypo) manic. So I kept him home calling in sick for him and when he tried to go back they said He'd need a Dr. note so we walked into intake. He got dx and started meds and therapy. Time went on and it was becoming clearer his therapist was thinking about signing me in to the crisis unit. Me in my infident wisdom of hypomania I went to intake for therapist. Well I almost got sent to the crisis center during intake because I had word vomit and I was laughing about my past delusions while explaining violent thoughts. So I got a quick appointment with T and a pdoc. I was told I can tell Pdoc I dont want meds. I got Dx. Bipolar w. psychosis.