[Simply_Orange]

A week or 2 ago or maybe last month I read this article on psych central taking about how "Bipolar disorder may be outgrown". http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/09...rown/8670.html
I read the article and I thought wow; how nice that would be if it were true. I am a young adult and was diagnosed around age 19. My therapist said it's true that a certain part of the brain doesn't finish growing until around age 25. To hear that maybe I could out grow it and that would no longer be an issue for me sounds too good to be true. Yet if it were it would be SO awesome! (To not take all these expensive meds and be stigmatized, ect.) So I was wondering what other people thought of this?

[blueoctober]

I don't believe it and perhaps if a person outgrows bipolar he or she has been misdiagnosed. For me I had symptoms since I was 8 and my symptoms got progressively worse until I was diagnosed at 31.

[Mac Murphy]

Originally Posted by blueoctober

I don't believe it and perhaps if a person outgrows bipolar he or she has been misdiagnosed. For me I had symptoms since I was 8 and my symptoms got progressively worse until I was diagnosed at 31.

I first got symptoms in late teens and was officially diagnosed at 38. It kept getting worse over the years until it almost destroyed my marriage. If it weren't for good docs and good meds I may not even be alive today. I don't believe it can be outgrown...just controlled somewhat.

[mgran]

Some people do seem to go into remission, (spelling, urgh...) so I wouldn't consider it an impossibility. But I'm not sure it's outgrown... maybe if it's cyclothimia it's more likely.

[yagalada]

I suppose anythings possible but I was diagnosed at 13 or so but got a lot worse around 27, that's when psychosis really set in for me.

[Kymaro]

Nice article, interesting. My thoughts are more into a part that was bearly mentioned. Bipolar has many variouses with it. It's interesting that they mentioned that the younger adults that were in the process of moving out of their parents home, attending college and facing many other stressors. It would be more apt for me to believe that 'they didn't grow out of it' but became stable when the stressors of adjustment between child and adult was completed.

[MissMay1977]

I agree that maybe bipolar can go into remission but not outgrown. I don't think a chemical imbalance can be outgrown. I agree that maybe the symptoms may be put into remission once young adult life stressors are complete.
Although I had manic and depressive symptoms in my late teens and early 20's, I was not diagnosed with bipolar until I was 27. A fight with my then boyfriend is what triggered me getting help.

[Lostime]

I wonder if this person wasn't thinking of borderline personality disorder when he wrote this!

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/sym...lity-disorder/

[Anneinside]

I have trouble believing that bipolar can be outgrown. Without actually reading the actual study, I have to wonder if they followed many individuals doing a longitudinal study or did they evaluate a spectrum of people across ages. How can you know if people "grow out of it" if you don't follow them through decades? I know I had depression and what I think was hypomania as a child, starting in 2nd grade. Between the ages of 18 to 37, my life was quiet and stable although looking back I can see short periods of hypomania. When faced with a tragedy, the death of my only child, Serena, depression followed by hypomania returned full force. I believe I have had bipolar all my life but was lucky to have been in almost a full remission for many years. If someone had asked me questions about bipolar symptoms during those years I would have said that I was fine. (I had been diagnosed with depression as a child, but not bipolar until I was 48.)