[tamzinrose]

Look, I just feel really lonely and I don't feel like anyone takes me seriously and I'm just...confused and... Do you think you could tell me a bit about when and how you were first diagnosed?

[BNLsMOM]

I was diagnosed in the first five minutes of meeting with my first p-doc. I didn't believe her and six months later, I went to another doctor who agreed. I suffered for many years before I sought help.

I knew something was wrong, so I kept looking for help.

[thinker22]

Bipolar disorder is often a lonely illness. No one but fellow sufferers really understand what it's like. You never know if you're going to wake up and spiral into another episode that's out of your control. The meds don't entirely work, but they help and they're better than nothing. Sorry you are feeling bad. It is confusing.

I only got diagnosed last spring. The school's psychiatric nurse had been hinting at it because I responded very badly to SSRIs, but did well on Wellbutrin. I was also having disturbing dreams of massacres and she said that bipolar people had those. I thought she must be crazy. I didn't know what bipolar was, but I was sure I didn't have it. Around April or May of '09 I started doing my own research and found what I'd always been ignoring as the wildly creative "real" me that was certainly not part of my problem. My problem was only these horrible spells of depression. When I recharted my life with this new found info, I brought the episode chart in to the psych nurse and she diagnosed me with bipolar ii. Mainly because she'd never seen me manic and assumed my up periods were only hypomanic. But I also had mixed episodes where I had energy, but was depressed and doing dangerous things. She didn't listen to me when I said I needed a meds change. So, I went off of the Seroquel that was draining my will to live (and making me sleep up to 14 hours a day), and I flipped into a manic episode for 9 weeks last summer. My new p-doc that I went to in August for the first time diagnosed me with bipolar i. The meds never fixed my severe high and when I crashed they didn't fix my severe low...until mid February of this year. I somehow emerged after a dosage change of Geodon. But I'm on 6 meds right now.

So that's how I got diagnosed. It's different for everyone. Have you been diagnosed? The stigma sucks, but at least when you are, you know how it can be treated.

Hang in there.

[Anneinside]

I had depression episodes as a child and later, after the death of my child in 1992. I started having hypomanic episodes but they weren't recognized until 2002. I became very depressed around 2001 and in 2002 I tried to overdose. I had only seen a psychologist until this time. I was referred to a psychiatrist when I was hospitalized for the overdose. After our initial 2 hour meeting, the psychiatrist diagnosed me with bipolar 2.

[grizmom]

I was diagnosed at age 19 after being hospitalized because of my anorexia. I had known something was wrong since I was in grade school, and I knew that I had depression, but I didn't realize that my "happy" times were actually hypomania. I also have mixed episodes; they are usually associated with bipolar 1, but I have never had the high mania, only hypomania, and I only had 1 psychotic episode, but that was because they put me on prozac, once they got me off the prozac it never happened again.

I was diagnosed initially with depression, but after my pdoc had worked with me for a year I think it was, he was seeing a cyclical pattern to my depression and there was some hypomania showing. I didn't get diagnosed until I was 42. That was about 20 years after I was initially treated for depression. It took a very long time. Bipolar II is a bit trickier to diagnose as the major symptom is depression and we don't go into actual mania, but hypomania instead, and we don't do that very often. Makes for a slow diagnosis sometimes.

[RRU96]

I was just diagnosed around 2 years ago. Had some issues I was dealing with that got severe enough. My wife and I talked and went to the County Mental Health clinic. I had one talk with a doctor... my "story" as I call it. From then on, I was being treated for Bipolar... (the depression was too deep that I dont remember myself being told)... I think she just told my wife. I am doing better right now... not self-injurying so I am gonna go back and start seeing a T that can help me get a better dx.... So I can hear the words..Not just take the pills.

[phlashback]

I was diagnosed a year after getting the courage to talk to my doctor about my depression and anxiety. I had seen a psychologist, and initaly diagnosed as OCD. I had failed to tell my doctor about the times of mania in my life, as i thought the times I felt really really good were normal.

After being placed on meds for OCD (SSRI) I spiraled out of control, and had a psycotic event. I went back to the doctor, and I was reassed as bipolar. It was clear when looking back at my life. This was when I was 28, however looking back problems started in childhood.

[thinker22]

Originally Posted by grizmom

I was diagnosed at age 19 after being hospitalized because of my anorexia. I had known something was wrong since I was in grade school, and I knew that I had depression, but I didn't realize that my "happy" times were actually hypomania. I also have mixed episodes; they are usually associated with bipolar 1, but I have never had the high mania, only hypomania, and I only had 1 psychotic episode, but that was because they put me on prozac, once they got me off the prozac it never happened again.

Didn't mention it, but I too knew something was wrong by the age of 7. I was very depressed and detached from life. I'd also get these super silly periods where I had out of control energy and couldn't sit still in my seat. I got sent to the corner a lot for that. This was before they started dispensing the dx of ADHD like candy.

Although I was officially dx'd at age 29, I was first put on an anti-depressant, Paxil, at age 20. That caused a semi-psychotic episode and I vowed to never take rx drugs again. That vow lasted until I was 28 and the depression was too severe and without breaks of relief.

Most other SSRIs didn't relieve my depression and made me lethargic. I experienced anhedonia on them.

[Continuum35]

I was diagnosed about a year ago but i knew something wasn't quite right with me as a child. Before being medicated i used to find unusual patterns with my behaviour such as extreme spending, rapid thoughts and risky behaviour such as gambling and problems with sleep well the lack of it...and i knew i needed help which then led to an appointment and an official diagnosis by my p-doc. Now i'm medicated and it helps as now i can do alot of things in moderation which was hard before medication.

[Slothrop]

1. Went without treatment for at least 10-15 years.
2. Saw my family doc, got diagnosis of depression, took antidepressants alone for 7 years.
3. Frustrated with lack of progress, I asked for and got a referral to a psychiatrist from my family doc.
4. Psychiatrist diagnosed me as bipolar II in first session. Addition of appropriate meds made a big difference.

[Moreta]

IMO Family Doctors shouldn't be allowed to treat any kind of mental illness....because....here it comes.....they have no idea how to treat it. Only an actual psychiatrist should be allowed to diagnose you, since that is what they specialize in.

As you can tell, I don't like Family Doctors, because A.) They think a little zoloft will help anything, B.) They don't quite understand how when you are bipolar, that, yeah, if you just stick someone on anti-depressants, there's this slight chance, just slightly, that they may go manic, C.) They push whatever drug that the drug reps are pushing, like Lexapro.....that was bad stuff.

So that was ages 16-18.

Finally, I convince my parents to take me to see a Psych, and it took me talking all of about 15 minutes, before he diagnosed me BP II & OCD.

Then when I was 19, after going to 4 more psych's, I finally found my current one, and she piled on ADHD to the diagnoses.

Finally, 6 years later, I've found a pretty good combo of meds and feel the best I have felt in a while. Yes, I still have crap days, but they are becoming less.