Episodes pre-diagnosis

Were they longer? How long (high and low combined)?

How long did it take to completely re-stabilize?

What was the episode that finally made you seek treatment? How old were you?

Mine were shorter because I kept getting ADs which made me manic then I'd crash and they'd up the AD dose which would make me manic which would make me crash and on and on for years. \

I don't know how long.

I've never been stable yet except for briefly, 13 years later.

It wasn't any one episode that led me to bipolar treatment, just a developing awareness that something wasn't right and an excellent website that I read and said aloud "I am bipolar". And so I was. I left my horrible psychiatrist then and went to a mood disorders clinic with an expert in bipolar leading it and that led to being in a clinical trial for lamictal along with a definite diagnosis.

I was mis-diagnosed with depression as a teen and put on ADs for years which sent me into mania. I stopped taking the ADs and was diagnosed eight years later. I went years believing I was fine, but looking back I wasn't. Right before my marriage I went into an irritable state, hypomania. I realized something was up. Waited awhile before seeking help when I went into a rage my therapist suggested bipolar. Finally diagnosed at 27. Now nine years later still trying the med merry go round. I was recently stable for the first time for just over a year. Just dealt with my first episode of psychosis recently and had to go back on an AP. Over the years was first BP 2, then rapid cycling, then BP 1, then mixed, and now psychosis. I've been on meds the entire time since diagnosed nine years ago.

The birth of my third child is what kicked off my bipolar. I was also taking 500 mg of Effexor which made matters much worse. They took me off that and I've been properly medicated ever since. I'm 36.

They were longer, as in months. I sought treatment due to depression and an inability to sleep, then being put on an anti-depressant (which threw me into mania). It was six months after giving birth to my daughter, and a bad post-partum depression that triggered the incident that led to a diagnosis, and I was 32 years old -- even though I think I should have been diagnosed ten years earlier.

How long did it take to completely re-stabilize? Honey, there is no such thing. Bipolar is a balancing act. First thing you do is find a good mood stabilizer and then you spend the rest of your life tweaking your medications and understanding yourself in therapy -- if you do things right. But I think you really want to know is how long does it take to get functional again, and THAT varies on how quickly you can find a medication combo you can tolerate. For me, I was out of the hospital and caring for my daughter eight days later and stable enough to do that at that time, but bipolar-stable and able to go back to work took a couple of years.

I forgot to tell you, I was 32 when I was diagnosed

Pre- diagnosis I had shorter less intense episodes all the way up to last year when I had some enormous blow up. I have a hard time describing it, but I felt like I was maybe cycling every hour. It was the most miserable time of my life. I was having hallucinations and delusions while in the morning I would wake feeling okay then plummet and spend the whole day crying and wanting to die, early evening was super excited and running around, nighttime was fearful because the ghosts were at their peak and I wasn't allowed(by the ghosts) to do anything but act normally.
Eventually I got so bad that I couldn't even speak in sentences and made an appointment with the first person I could find. She didn't believe/understand what I was trying to tell her. The first thing she did though, was start teaching me DBT and later realized how serious my situation was. It took me 3/4 months to feel functional again. I was 23.
Sorry this turned into such a text wall, I haven't been able to tell anyone this before.

Just wondering how your mood did with the other two children? With my son I ended up in treatment for PPD after not sleeping for days at a time and showing all the symptoms. With my second child I shot directly up and felt better than ever. After my second my episodes got more regular and intense.
My dr seemed to imply to me that my situation was abnormal, as far as the extreme opposite moods following my children, but I didn't know what to make of that.

I got PPD really bad after my daughter was born too. It was one of the worst times of my life, which makes me sad because all I remember from when my daughter was a baby is feeling bad and wanting to die.

I had my first episode of depression (what I remember as an actual episode) when I was 24. It was horrible. It lasted three months and was over the summer. I didn't see a mental health provider until I was 26 or 27, right after I got an OWI and couldn't drink anymore so my anxiety was really bad, so I went in for anxiety and not because I was depressed, and I was put on sertraline. This made me rapid cycle between mania and depression and eventually led to my first hospitalization. I was then put on lamictal and alprazolam and was stable until I became a mom at 29. Then I had my first mania and psychosis at 32 and ended up in the hospital.

So, depression on average three months, mania two weeks. Meds haven't changed duration or intensity.

Were they longer? How long (high and low combined)? My episodes were shorter but much more intense. Now they are longer less intense with no regular time between episode

How long did it take to completely re-stabilize? I'm not restablized I've never been stable and don't think I'll ever be really stable

What was the episode that finally made you seek treatment? How old were you?

The first time under threat of divorce at 22.
Second time under threat of being hospitalized @ 26