I felt so old yesterday, and doomed - what is the median age on this board?

I'm 41.
I didn't get close enough to self acceptance or letting a diagnostician in until I was 35. But I've been depressed in levels of varying severity most of my life. Hence my diagnosis, Recurrent Depressive Disorder. [In my case, constant chronic depression with periodic overlays of acute episodes of increased severity.]

I'm 41 yo and female. Dx originally with depression, then Bipolar II and now Bipolar I. Geee, maybe this is finally the correct diagnosis!

I am a 41-yo male (human), diagnosed with BP2 at 36, though it's clear that my depression started in my late teens. The experts do say that , if left untreated, it gets worse with age and this has certainly been the case for me. Most of my BP-related ills have come about since the diagnosis.
My initial impressions were similar, that the forum members here were on the whole younger and majority female; I think this is purely a function of men's tendency to clam up and women's (enviable) tendency to give free reign to their emotions. I speak strictly for myself but as a man, I do struggle with airing my "laundry" even in this virtual arena. With the exception being when I am manic, in which case I am only too happy to broadcast my feelings and thoughts to the world. Not manic now, incidentally.

Boy. I know how you feel but the opposite. After reading this thread I feel too young. I'm soon to be 26. Diagnosed in January.

I'm 20. So, younger than Abe.

I was dx-ed in April with bipolar II. I've endured ADD symptoms throughout my entire childhood, but still haven't gotten that diagnosed (the pdocs I've seen say that it's important to get mood under control before looking for/treating ADD). I had a break in my life at 12, where my entire personality changed. I went from being very extroverted to socially withdrawn, lost interest in things my peers enjoyed (but gained interest in things like the nature of time and life), lost most of my self-esteem, and even had some beliefs that almost certainly were delusions. Looking back, that likely was my 1st depression, though no one suspected anything was wrong (so, no treatment). High school was a series of highs and lows of varying severity..learned Latin in a month, set the curve in biology, made new friends...then lost friends, self-esteem plummeted...rinse and repeat...ended on a fairly serious low. Experienced a yet even stronger depression 1st semester of college, which lead me to seek treatment second semester, when I realized that college wasn't going to magically make my life wonderful.

So that's my life story. Don't know why I felt compelled to write it all out...

female 28, diagnosed at 27

Thank you! I keep thinking I'll figure it out if no one else does....
Bless you, young one.

I'm a 50 year old female, but I'm online about my family members--I appear to be ridiculously stable. My husband has probably been having bipolar episodes since he was about 10, though he was about 39 when he was finally diagnosed. He is on two mood stabilizers and after many years unemployed and on disability, he is stable enough to work as an over-the-road truck driver (which is not as stressful to someone who really loves it). I also have a son who had his first depressive episode at about 13. He was seeing a therapist to deal with his father's disorder and when I asked, she agreed that he seemed to be sinking into a depression that therapy alone couldn't touch. By the time I could get him in to see the psychiatrist for medication, he was bouncing off walls so the guy puts him on ritalin (very bad idea for someone with mood disorder in the family) and two days later I had a psychotic manic teenaged boy. Not something I recommend. Cut to today where my son is 19 and probably using meth because it's easier to get than the prescription stuff, living on the street with a girlfriend who makes him look sane by comparison. Mental health care has NOT improved greatly for children with bipolar, though children with true ADHD can get treatment.

I'm female, 22 and was DX at 19.

I'm official diagnosed Bipolar NOS though.

I'm 26, was diagnosed this year with bp II. I've had symptoms for about 10 years.

age is not a matter of how many years one has lived, but of how one has lived those many years. best wishes,, Gus

48. Ugh, I hate saying that. BP started in earnest at 20, but not dx'd till....44? (That time frame is a blur of chaos having been misdiagnosed and disasterously mismedicated for a couple years previous.) Why so long till dx? Certainly not for lack of obviousness. HUGE family denial issues and continuing with ex. I didn't know about BP, and assumed they must be right -- that I was just weak-willed, unable to just "get over it", volatile and out of control. Fun times.

Wish it had been addressed far far earlier. Would've saved a whole lot of suffering and regret, not to mention becoming a living example of kindling...

Soooo glad to have found PC. I used to feel so alone in the chaos...

This is brilliant, Nacht, you actually counted the beans, thank you!!

And big thanks to everyone, I have a yearning to quote half the posts but do not want to cause a deluge to the thread. Thank you for the stories and encouragement. There are so many different stories amongst us, with some unifying themes. The main theme, to me, is struggle. So to our success!

I am 37 recently diagnosed with BP1 and have one child who is 15 almost 16. I feel doomed sometimes b/c I feel old comparatively, however it looks like there are a lot more ppl around my age than I thought.

Still trying to get stable also is exhausting and my family and pdoc and therapist think researching meds and being on here isn't good for me. I say hey I want to know what I am putting in my body and if feels good to not feel so alone.

Anyway I read someplace the average age of a person being diagnosed is 40 although I don't know if that is correct.

I'm 19 years old, diagnosed with OCD at 16 and Bipolar 1 Disorder at 18.

@tcmoon52

How have you dealt with the side effects of meds? I am gaining weight on mine and hating it but my pdoc doesn't want to change them b/c I just came out of a psychosis in August and she is scared I may go back there. I also went very, manic. Now I feel depressed (not severely but getting there) and she is afraid to mess with my meds. I am on Risperdal 2.5, Depakote 500 2x a day, a night mare med, Seroquel 200 mg at night. I have gained 9 pounds in about 3 wks. Also what all are you on you do sound stable. Thx

I am 28 years young and at first the docs said when I was just 12-13 years old that I either had bipolar or schizoaffective disorder bipolar type. I had anxiety my entire life and its been diagnosed as severe generalized anxiety disorder and its related to my autism. My autism was diagnosed at 5 years old and had it all my life. There was few years that I didn't appear autistic but in the last 5 years some of the behaviors that I had as a child is coming back on me. The reason why there were a few years that I had almost no autistic symptoms except the lack of social skills is because there wasn't much stress going on in my life. Everyone was healthy and our financial situation was nearly perfect. I was re-diagnosed as schizoaffective disorder at 23 years old. There were a few years that I was nearly symptom free in all my disorders except the severe anxiety and sometimes depression. I am on SSI payments and can't work or drive. I am an artist though which makes hardly any money after all most artists starve.