I have mixed opinions on this. I definitely think doctors need to be extra careful when diagnosing at such a young age, because there is evidence the brain is not fully developed until at least 20, sometimes up to 25! Because of this, young people tend to be more impulsive, which is more 'the norm.' However, there's impulsive behavior that goes way beyond being the average risk taking teenager, and when that's combined with other Bipolar symptoms...well, that needs to be taken into account as an issue that needs to be assessed.

The DSM now includes a new diagnosis with some parallels to Bipolar called "Disrupted Mood Dysregulation Disoder" for children, which eliminates diagnosing someone too early with Bipolar, which is interesting to read about.

I am convinced though that adolescents can certainly experience Bipolar episodes for the first time. The hypomania felt good at age 15-16 when I first experienced it, but it unraveled into something terrible. I became clearly manic. Paranoia set in, which definitely doesn't fall under the norm for a teenager. The behavioral change was huge. I couldn't sit in class. I spent every day at the Child Study Team, needing to speak to a counselor. I had pressured speech, extreme anxiety, off-the-wall ideas, and ended up in a Mixed Manic state that was terrifying to me. I had no clue what was wrong with me until I was "labeled" and read about my problem. Counselors were afraid to label me early on, but I wish they had, because it took multiple recurrent episodes to finally learn. I went without adequate care during that dark time.

So to sum it up, yes, I believe Bipolar episodes can first occur in teenage years. I believe children can have features of it, but I think it's too early to label it. Besides, there's such a broad spectrum for these symptoms. One thing that bothers me though is that people (a lot of mothers) throw around the term too loosely to label a kid as Bipolar at times when there could be environmental and other physical problems going on. Some kids do grow out of stuff, like hormonal mood swings.