My parents ignored my symptoms. I didn't get a diagnosis and medication until I was 21, yet the doctor believed that my symptoms emerged around or just prior to age 10.

I needed years of therapy because having an ill brain that wasn't being treated affected my ability to think and I had to relearn how to think. Of course therapy can only do so much, I will have badly altered thinking and emotional control for the rest of my life.

If I could ever have a do-over for my life, it would be to get aggressive mental health care when the symptoms started emerging. Those mind altering drugs as people refer them can alter the growing brain in such a way that it helps the synapses fix themselves, leading to less severe problems in adulthood. If you've got something, anything, that is making things right, the neurons are going to go right along that pathway, making it more stable. If your mind is having problems, those neurons are going to reinforce the problems by going right along with the bad areas.