I guess since my pre-teens I knew that I was a little "off". Things just progressively got worse with age. I didn't seek help until a few years ago when my kids were born. It was a stressful time and I knew I needed help. I didn't get the official DX then, but wasn't surprised when I did a year or so later. When I started looking up BP and saw hypomania, I knew that was me. So the DX of BP II was no shock at all. Unfortunately, I seem to spend a lot more time in depression, which brings out BPD like behavior in me and it's very scary.

But, I really didn't realize it was a possibility until after I sought professional help for the first time, and even though was DX'd with major depression, I started researching online and then pretty much figured it out.