I had my first manic-psychotic episode at 16. It lasted from May to August and went completely unrecognized because my parents were battling their own severe mental illnesses and I fell through the cracks. That episode left my brain literally fried when I started my senior year. I was a 4.0 student in all advanced placement classes. My first quarter senior year I had a 1.6 GPA. I was literally drooling on myself in the cafeteria. I had so little cognitive function left. It took until third quarter for my grades to return to my usual 4.0. I lost any friend I ever had that summer because I was so delusional and hallucinating people shunned me.

I thought the entire Boston Red Sox Baseball team lived in my bedroom and we would have long chats about strategy. I called a sports radio talk show at 2 and 3 AM every night babbling about what the team was secretly telling me. The host put up with me because I was a child, until one night I called him ten times to talk about the love letters I was getting from team members. The producer asked me if my parents knew what I was doing. I said my parents have schizophrenia and are busy which was the sad truth. I didn't sleep for almost an entire summer. I sat in my room playing the game jacks while listening to west coast baseball games. I believed that the faster I scooped the jacks the more home runs my team would hit. I literally bloodied my hands playing jacks for 8 hours straight a night. I believed the game had magic powers.

If any of you have teen age children, don't ignore the early signs of mania. I wasn't treated till I was 29. I had a ton of other issues that were unavoidable, my bipolar disorder could have been dealt with in my teenage years and I'd have had one less complicating illness to contend with as I entered my 20s. Please, pay attention to subtle bipolar symptoms in your teenage children. You can protect them from a lot of damage later in life.