[ComfortablyNumb5]

Maybe you noticed something was wrong the very moment your first symptom arose or maybe 10 years down the road, after a DX, you think “wow that made sense back then!”

(Trigger)My first symptom was self harm at age 9 after my mom died. I had a rage so bad I couldn’t control myself. I was a dangerous kid. First I’d scratch and claw at my face until it bleed. Then, well I found new tools for the job (Trigger). Then as I grew up, the mania monster got me. I had no idea I was “Sick”. I was diagnosed at 18.

[cryingontheinside]

When I was a kid I would constantly day dream and avoid reality

[UpDownAround]

I went to the doc because of depression and it was only because I described how it would go away and I would feel great for a little while that he had me do the questions and then interviewed my wife to determine "great" was very subjective. I get mostly euphoric hypomania and was afraid to say anything because I thought the feelings I had might be related to extensive drug use in my teens and early 20s.

EDIT - symptoms before being diagnosed were similar; cycles of depression and feeling great back as far as early teens, maybe longer. I definitely got depressed back to age 10 for sure (a particular incident from 4th grade sticks out). I did a lot of drugs in my teens and early 20s and much like later (in my 30s when diagnosed) I never said anything about euphoria when I wasn't high thinking it was an after effect of an earlier high.

[dshantel]

I think my first symptoms we're on the hypomania side when I was around 9 and 10. I remember having vivid ideas about things I wanted to do that were unrealistic. I also spend a lot of time imagining my life and making up elaborate stories about things I did, that I didn't really do. I believe it was my way of escaping reality and all the abuse I was going through. But then around age 13 and 14 I remember be severely depressed and (trigger) planning to end my life (Trigger). I think abuse is what tipped the depression scale that far towards the end. But then after that I started going to this church and hypomania set in once again having me believe that I had a special mission from Jesus. Never suspected anything was wrong with me back then. I mean I did purposefully hide my issues from my family. So I guess I knew something was off. I wore the mask very well and I still have trouble taking it off. Ever sense I've been up and down. Was diagnosed at age 24.

a suicide attempt (a genuin one)

it was after that that people really started taking notice and wondered what was going on

[99fairies]

When I hit puberty I got very depressed. I think that was my first mood issue. When I was a kid I struggled with hallucinations.

Probably anger and voilence. I was 14. Beat the living sh_t out of my dad b/c I was a terrible person.

It's hard to put my finger on. I could speculate that maybe mild, mostly elated but occasionally irritable, hypomania could have been the first sign of my bipolar disorder. I'm not sure, though. I will never know if other children at like 8 years old experienced what I experienced. Like the one poster above, I daydreamed a lot, and many of them were grandiose daydreams. I did feel elated back then and also had a temper to the point of tantrums. Again, regular kid or bipolar?

My very first symptom that required treatment was anxiety at 14. My GP put me on Buspar. Then either hypomania or mania came, then depression. I went through the gauntlet between 14-16 years old. I almost failed the year from skipping school too many days, had a traumatic even at school, was sent to therapy (though received no dx), went on a mission to find God and joined the Catholic Church, and then the recommended I switch to a private school. After that things eased a bit. Maybe some hypomania in my freshman & sophomore year, a depression in junior year, and then perhaps a brief full blown mania with mixed episodes in my senior year, for which the university health center sent me to the university psychologist (still no accurate dx). That pdoc put me on Prozac, which I took for maybe three days and then transitioned to hypomania. After that the year became quite wild.

[WildcatVet]

As a kid I almost literally hid in a closet most of the time. No friends, no engaging, no interactions. My school nurse advised I see a pdoc but the parental units were opposed until the SI's began and I was diagnosed at 15ys.

[sonjaward809]

I guess mine would have to be when I was about 7-8, I remember feeling really down all the time but that could be due to the family situation I was in at that time. I also remember having what I now know are delusions, around 10 years old. I had a teacher pull me out of class once when I was 14 and she straight up asked me if I was bipolar due to how erratic my moods where. I had also threw a textbook at a boys head that day because he wouldn't leave me alone and had constantly picked on me. I officially got diagnosed with bipolar with psychotic features at the age of 17.

[~Christina]

Age 6 I just wanted to fade away. My mother thought I was doing it for attention.

My father knew I wasn’t faking.

Diagnosed depressed all through the years until age 43, it explained so much of my life.

[scatterbrained04]

Severe depression is the first thing I remember at age 14 with bad insomnia and suicidal ideation.

[GoldenSnitch]

It was the extreme depression and self harm that got me to a doctor in the first place but I can remember hallucinations and paranoia from a pretty early age.

[xRavenx]

My imagination was a blessing and a curse. I had a creative, active mind, but my teachers told me I would daydream too much. I was always so lost in fantasy land. The bad part though: sometimes I wouldn't be in touch with reality or certain things would make me extremely paranoid that most people wouldn't even think about or understand. I also felt the little need for sleep and went through periods where I was super productive and imaginative. So I think some of those manicky signs were there at an early age (although of course the true manic episodes came early). Anxiety started very early as well.

[Greenfish77]

Depression for four years, then hypomania for about 2-3 months, then the episodes got stronger but shorter until I was having episodes cycle within 3 hours right before I started getting medicated.

[Standup2me]

16 and suicidal thoughts
Was told by everyone "get over it", it's part of growing up..etc.

[Row Jimmy]

Explosive anger is the only symptom I can triangulate. I don't remember specific hypomania or depression but I do recall being categorically able to take or leave anything in my life. And this went on for about 30 years.

I used to see an invisible man with evil eyes (I could see him, even though he was invisible) that chased me around. I think this was caused by extreme child abuse (my mother was extremely mentally ill). I was very depressed, anxious, and acted like an adult when I was a child.

I had SI my entire childhood, and I used to wonder why other kids had parents die in accidents, but God wouldn’t take the monster that was my mother.

[Wild Coyote]

Severe depression and feeling suicidal at a young age. Lots of trauma.


WC

[franz kafka]

OCD hit me first around the ages of 7 or 8. My next symptoms were depression and self harm around the ages of 15 or 16. Pdoc prescribed me antidepressants and I went manic, so I ended up with a bipolar diagnosis.

[Faltering]

I was depressed and had SI at age 11 through adolescence. It became my "normal" mood state. Then the rage hit. That's when I really knew something was wrong.

[liveforsummer]

First symptoms I was aware of were depression and suicidal thoughts late teens early twenties, followed by AD given that led to year of hypomania (risky behaviour) then bad depression. ...still no one clued in. Off AD then age 25 first extreme anxiety and panic attacks. 25 years later and I’m still a disaster!

[raspberrytorte]

Severe anxiety as a child. Then I remember some other symptoms starting when I was eighteen/nineteen, like depression and possible hypomania and some paranoia.

[VerMOZZica]

I think I started to become depressed in junior high but I couldn`t name exactly what was wrong with me. When I was in my twenties I started to develop OCD and had an eating disorder that`s when I forced to get help.And I was later also diagnosed with depression and anxiety. Now I am diagnosed as bipolar 2.

[Sunflower123]

Severe depression and SI at the age of 13.