How old were you before you were diagnosed?

I was 28

MDD when I was 24. BP 18 years ago when I was 41. Now I am 59.

Why does bipolar have to take so long? So many peoples' lives could potentially be bettered if the doctors would only take note of the repeated attempts for help.
I'm depressed, I need help. I'm better, I don't. Lather, rinse, repeat over and over...
I'm not saying everyone that seeks help multiple times is bipolar, but it seems to be a pattern here with the spacing between the diagnosis.

I was diagnosed at 47. I'm 47. Been like this my whole life. It's just gotten impossible to cover and pass for normal until the past couple years. I thought I was just a stress case and overly emotional. Turns out I was mixed hypomanic for quite a while.

12. But spent 10 years on wrong medications that made it all worse.

Similar to me. Major depression at 18. Bipolar 2 at 36. I skew way towards depression. Doctors have debated the BP because am so depressed. But I am doing much better on lithium so BP 2 it is.

I've been displaying MI symptoms since I was 13 but never saw a psychiatrist or therapist until I was 18. I was diagnosed with BP when I was 18, then undiagnosed BP and diagnosed with GAD and major depression when I was 19. Then rediagnosed BP when I was 20 (with GAD still).

I was 28 when diagnosed. It was textbook (DSM) diagnostic chronology clean and simple. Self medication, experimentation, whatever the nomenclature our patterns parallel though the "how comes" vary a little.

I'm found here at a preconscious depth, lower level, from a psycho-therapeutic perspective. There's a lot of raw content here, incomplete gestalts are obvious if I stray a little away from psychotherapy.

Enough of all that for now.

Thank you Chuck1970. God bless . . . .

I think I was 16 when I was first diagnosed with psychosis NOS, bipolar at 18.

Good luck on the MI diagnosis! Primary and secondary anxiety inclusive diagnoses interest me. I'm not certain if bipolar disorder is super-imposed upon generalized anxiety disorder or vice a versa? I can imagine a person being anxious to exit episodes of depression, but it seems to me that an individual would have ended an episode of anxiety prior to becoming depressed by it. At any rate GAD seems primary to BP which wavers diagnostically given what goes here and diagnosable anxiety might certainly cause one's cardio vascular electronics to stand out graphically. I'm on a depressing diet for blood pressure and anxious for better health. I was just in the ER with a STEM/MI so that's me--anxious to get better and depressed because I'm not. Somehow a sense of community emerged from the conscious or probably preconscious level of my psyche and I found myself here wishing you well. I'm over 65 and the diagnoses keep coming.

Best wishes.

Was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder at 17, officially diagnosed as bipolar I disorder when I was around 30

Diagnosed at 40 and that was about 2 months ago. Although I medicated with other things for years because I was undiagnosed.

Diagnosed with mood disorder NOS at 26 and then bipolar NOS at 27 and then around 30 bipolar I.

I was 32 with no prior history, re-diagnosed recently age 43. My diagnosis has changed 3 times, but it started at age 32.

19. Denied it and went about my business until 27.

I was diagnosed with BP1 at 20, though I suspected I had it from when I was 16.

Dx’ed at 18, but I laughed in the dr’s face. Didn’t believe it until 25, when I was reduagnosed.

26. Not sure if I am truly bipolar or if the mania was drug induced. I guess Ill never know.

Offically, 23.

I was 27. I was hospitalized four times before that. Some early diagnosis I had included depression, adhd, and schizophrenia

I'm not really sure how BP and anxiety interact for me... I started having panic attacks when I was 16 and did not really show symptoms of BP until I was 18. My psychiatrist actually dismissed my hypomanic episodes as heightened anxiety, but I knew that wasn't right. To me my anxiety is distinct from depression or hypomania. Luckily I have found meds that really keep my anxiety under control, so it's rarely a problem.

I was 95-years-old. I led a wild & crazy life...Oh, the stories I could tell!!!