Does Bipolar Get Worse with Age?

Hello everyone,

I've heard that bipolar gets worse as you get older. I was diagnosed in Aug 2012 (Bipolar one). My first hospital stay was in 2013...been in the hospital four times...but have not been back since 2013.

Lately my anxiety has increased to daily. My pdoc prescribed a med to help. I've also been dealing with some depression since spring. My pdoc started me on an antidepressant last fall for SAD and increased it this month. Usually I'm manic/mixed in spring and summer.....depression in fall/winter. This year I have not had any mania just depression and anxiety. I don't know what is going on.

For those of you that have been dealing with bipolar a long time has it seemed to get worse as you have aged? If so what have you noticed?

I'm 62 and I don't know if my bipolar has gotten better or worse. All I know is that it has changed. I used to be more hypomanic than depressed for years. Now I'm more often depressed than hypomanic.

My mood patterns are similar to yours, but as I've grown older (I'm 56), the severe manic episodes somewhat fade away, while the depressive episodes stay. My pdoc says this is common. Sorry about the bad news.

I am 15 months shy of 60. During med adjustments over the last few months, I was hypomanic a lot more than usual but that is probably an anomaly. My history has been far more depression than hypomania with most of my depression being moderate. In the last few years I have taken more deep dives into major depression than my norm of the two decades before. The silver lining (maybe) is that most of my recent hypomania has been euphoric, while it used to mostly be irritable. You have probably heard the joke about depression being anger without enthusiasm; irritable hypomania is anger with enthusiasm. It's almost as bad as depression.

EDIT TO ADD - I also found out there is a third type of hypomania I can have during the med adjustment - expansive hypomania. It could not have come at a better time. I was eager to bare my soul to my MH care team, Had I been in any of my more common states, that likely would not have happened. It was triggered by lamictal, which my primary started me on and told me to find a pdoc to better manage medications. By the time I was seen by my pdoc, I was an open book. It took about 6 weeks for me to adjust and come out of the hypomania (other meds were in the mix also).

I was very bad off when I was young. Very unsafe, very insane beginning around age 14. On and off I went from agoraphobic to hypo/manic until late 20's when I began with periodic depression and SI thoughts once a year or every 2 years or so with some hypo mixed in but it didn't threaten to ruin my life.....then VERY bad depression in mid 30's and have been going WAY UP and WAY DOWN since then. I can't say if it's gotten worse for me.....my last delusion was the worst yet so I'd say yes, it's gotten worse in some ways. For some it might get worse but I think it's ok for us to hope it will get better given time and finding the RIGHT treatment for us.

My bipolar disorder has changed over the years (I'm 54). When I was younger I tended toward irritability, anger, and rage. Those emotions no longer plague me. Now my anxiety is very severe.

Worse for me but I was undiagnosed for a very long time.

It's gotten better for me over the years.

BP II here.

I'd started having issues as a child, which demanded treatment in my teens. I have been all over the place with this over the past 40 years. A bit better and worse, etc. I have a great pdoc, intensive care, newer meds and am doing as well as I can do, I believe.

I think courses vary for people.
Many factors figure in as well.


WC

I'm more aware of my actions as I get older but my delusions have turned on to my husband. I'm no longer hypersexual. It turned from euphoric to angry mania. I wouldn't say it's worse different but not more extreme.

It has changed over the years, I would have to say it is worse now. When I was diagnosed in my teens, hypomania was the big problem, now its depression and SI. I also did not have anxiety problems in my youth, now its terrible. On the other hand, I had more mixed episodes when I was younger, so that's a good thing and my coping skills are much better, but I have more to cope with!

I do know people that have grown out of some symptoms. I am 60 now, I am still waiting for that. I hope you grow out of it and don't have to deal with this your whole life.

I have developed more mania the last couple years and psychosis. Sucks

I am pushing 60, and I feel my bipolar has gotten worse with time. It's under good control now with lots of medication and therapy, but for a few years it just got worse and worse. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 53 with bipolar NOS, then it really got out of hand and I was diagnosed with bipolar 1 at age 55.

What's sad is, I've probably had it for most of my life. I remember going through my first depressive episode when I was 10, and I can recall times I was suicidal as a kid and young adult. I also know in retrospect that there were manic episodes which I self-medicated with alcohol.Live and learn, I guess.

I can't tell I feel like I am more mixed now.

Its hard to tell. I would say before that it got worse with age, but I have been having some good periods of stability lately (before the more recent issues) so I'm not exactly sure anymore.
I would say having it for so long and becoming very self aware has helped TREMENDOUSLY on the journey
Anxiety....that's another beast all together. That one has been a runaway galloping horse since I was a kid, with no stop in sight

I would have to say mine has. My anxiety is worse now too. The reason I say it is worse is because I get more mixed episodes now. My BP flared up at age 14, but I didn't have mixed episodes until I was 26. I can't say it has worsened over the last 7 years though, but my anxiety certainly has.

I have been wondering that myself. In the last few years I have improved a lot by being able to go to university (p/t) and working 11-16 hours a week (although, I have about 6 months off during the the year of due to episodes). However, my PTSD was dealt with before and in those years, so I am wondering if that was the cause of my improvement. Bipolar was only diagnosed four years ago (I am 41) and I continuously have rapid cycling involving long-ish episodes that are severe. Maybe this was masked by the PTSD but it seems that, for now, my Bipolar is worsening. I do have hope that it will calm down soon enough.

Since I turned 50 I have been getting consistently better, to the point where I feel that I don't need my medication any more. Of course I will continue to take it, but sooner or later I'm going to ask my psychiatrist to lower my dosages. I was in bad shape from 2008 to 2010, but have been fairly stable ever since. I will be 60 in December.

I keep getting worse, but idk if that's from my physical problems getting worse too. I feel like the MSI song "It gets worse."

My symptoms were at their worst in my early 40's (mainly depression). I've gotten MUCH better in my 50's -- been in complete remission since about age 50; I'm 54 now.

That is great. Thank you for sharing your story.

I'm 46 and it's gotten better with time. I haven't had a hypomania episode for 3 years now and I used to have about 3 a year, mania once, but some 7 years ago. I used to suffer from agoraphobia, then very intense anxiety and now that has improved as well, though I still suffer from anxiety, sometimes very bad. When I was young(er) I would crash into deep depressions after hypomania and sometimes independent of that. Now I get mildly depressed, but not deeply so. So, it has definitely improved, but I don't know to what extent it's time, and to what extent it's having finally started treatment, and then after some ineffective combinations of medications, having found the one that works for me.

When I was young(er) I was also an alcoholic, which significantly worsened the intensity of depressions (I think). I kicked that habit a long time ago now (some 9 years ago) and unfortunately, since my dear cat passed away I'm having cravings again. At least I'm aware of it, and am trying to be careful, and hope the cravings go away again.

If it's relevant, my previous pdoc, who specialized in BP, told me that she had had plenty of patients who had gone some 10 years without an episode. There's hope!

In reflection its easy enough for me to see that I was "cyclothymic" for a very long time with periods of depression and periods of very high productivity; and it was only last year that I started to lose control of the situation, culminating in me calling a doc early this year and getting help.

So I'd have to say mine has gotten more intense over the years and I now require meds to manage, just like my blood pressure and stuff. With meds, I feel more stable than I've ever felt, so hopefully my luck will continue.

Anyone have perimenopause/ menopause impact it?

It's possible it has had a negative impact for me. I have been going through some of the worst depressions of my life. Yet, it's hard to tell just what's having the largest impact, I have so many things going on medically.

My pdoc states perimenopause/menopause causes a big exacerbation for many women. I dunno.


WC