I, too, was emotionally disturbed as a child. I suffered from a tremendous amount of neglect and child abuse and would fake illness on a frequent basis to get out of class because I wanted to go sleep in the nurses office.

I sometimes feel that my bipolar disorder has always been around, that I was simply born this way, but I don't know.

My heart goes out to you. My mom, too, was angered when the schools stated I needed to be medicated and refused to believe it was true. She was supportive of my diagnosis after I aged, though.