My parents tried to give me "tough love" all the time, which usually made me feel even worse. They also thought that I was exaggerating my symptoms when I was looking for support from them.

I started suffering from depression when I was in 6th grade, so... I was about 11-12 at the time. They thought I was just "acting out" and they blatantly told me "stop it". Well, I was suffering from bipolar disorder, so it was kind of hard for me to just "stop it". Their harsh words only made me feel more upset and made my life more difficult. I ultimately lost all my friends by the end of 6th grade and I was bullied for being a loner. I was also getting very poor grades in school (C's and D's), but again, they thought I was just "acting out".

The worst part is, they refused to even let me seek professional help, so I suffered for over a decade. It wasn't until I was 24 that I sought help and was properly diagnosed as bipolar.

It was pretty bad because I get severe depression and severe rage. I've destroyed a lot of my own belongings out of anger, and I've spent many nights crying to myself, but my parents didn't really care. They thought I was just acting out and that it was a phase.

To this day, I've never told them I have bipolar disorder. I don't plan to either. They've made fun of people with bipolar disorder in the past, so it's not worth trying to reason with them.

But between 0 and 10 years old, I think my life was fine.

I don't think my parents caused me to be the way I am, but they definitely made my childhood hard on me. I'm mainly upset that they didn't let me seek professional help.