Bipolar runs in my family, so I had a genetic predisposition already. I was showing symptoms after being abused as a child, but the real catalyst for it was being bullied relentlessly in middle school after I came out to the wrong person (who proceeded to tell everyone in the grade). I had glass bottles thrown at my head on the bus, which gave me a mild concussion though luckily the bottles didn't break. I was physically beaten up and called all sorts of names, told I was going to hell, even got death threats. The school did nothing about it. Needless to say I finished middle school from home and did online high school. When I was on crutches after I broke my foot, a kid threw a dodgeball at me while I was standing off to the side, causing me to fall and sustain another injury.

The cruelty of those kids made things go from bad to worse. So my bipolar really became a problem around age 12-13. I was always type 2, but they didn't diagnose me until I was 18 because type 2 can't exist until you're an adult, apparently.