My bipolar behavior started surfacing at 14 yrs. old. I was a pretty active teenager. Playing team sports in baseball and football. Average to good in school. I was starting to get interested in fishing. My Dad had moved us to a small town from Savannah, Ga. and something about me was not adjusting to the new environment.

I became way too quiet and built an invisible shield to keep just about everybody away. By isolating myself from other kids and my parents becoming involved in a new, very different religion, I opened my mind to all kinds of negative thoughts. This led to a nervous breakdown, hospitalization, and quitting school.

Since then I've been on a depression-mania unpredictable life. I've had many periods of good, stable times, but a depression or manic episode would knock my progress back down. I'm going to describe my behavior and I want to read your's too to maybe relate and understand bipolar disorder better from real experience.