How old where you when....

I was diagnosed at 33 but was diagnosed with depression at 25 or so. I even tried seeing a pdoc t 16 but he just said I was "a normal teenager". Im now 46.

Was diagnosed at 51 though it wasn't my first trip through the highs and lows, it was however my most intense low then high experience with the low being bad enough to scare me into getting seen soon. Its interesting to me that I didn't get the courage to call for help until I was "feeling awesome", but I'm glad I did, and it helped get the right diagnosis being seen that way.

I'm almost 53 now and haven't had a serious depressive event since that time. I feel, boring. And that is a "Good Thing"(tm).

I turned 51 on my last birthday.

Thank you for your reply, it made me chuckle. I need that today.

I took zoloft during 2 of my 3 pregnancies, if not all 3. And that was 1997-2001. I was depressed a lot more before I was diagnosed bipolar, for some reason. I even got catatonic a few times. One clue that should've tipped me off in 2001 was when I was giving N2 a shower. (She was 2 years old. We didn't have a tub.) That should've tipped off my pdoc, but she just said I had post-partum depression.

I was diagnosed with atypical depression and severe PTSD when I was 28 given lots of ADs that threw me into mixed episodes that then was passed off as part of the PSTD. Don't recall when they changed it to bipoar but they still kept throwing the ADs at me. In my late 30's I refused further meds for a time but the BP kept interfering with therapy so I went back on and made the connection to ADs being very bad for me. I'm 60 now after years of therapy the PTSD is in remission and the BP stabilized with a AP and NO ADs.

I've been exhibiting symptoms since the age of 6, but was diagnosed bipolar NOS at 53 and bipolar 1 at 55.

I was 44..it explained a lot

BP diagnosis at 46. Before that was anxiety, depression, and BPD since 29. I'm now 53.

40’s. Sheds a different light on the past.

I was 38. But I knew that something was going on at around 18 or 19. My concerns were dismissed.

I was diagnosed with anxiety (GAD) and bipolar 2 by my therapist when I was 18, then my pdoc said I did not have bipolar and instead had major depressive disorder. After a couple years with that pdoc, I realized he was not a very good doctor, and switched to a new one. The new pdoc re-diagnosed me with bp2 when I was 20, and then switched that to bp1 when I was 21 (which is how old I am now).

I am not sure I agree with the bp 1 diagnosis. I thought you had to experience psychosis to be diagnosed bp1, but my pdoc says the intensity of my manic episodes, even though they did not involve psychosis, qualifies me for bp1. I guess the label doesn't really matter though, as long as we are finding medicine and treatment that work for me.

hi i am 57 and have sza also and have been in treatment since i was 10.
there is no set in stone age for these things.
it was swept under the rug in the past there is so much stigma. It seemed like everyone had a weird aunt Maggie or crazy uncle Tom. It was kept secret times are slowly changing but they are changing.

or in my case a crazy mother lisa.

lol.
she didn't want me to get help- and when I attempted on my life, acording to her, it was "normal behaviour".

outragious!

anyway I was diagnosed at 13, but had a lot of episodes before that

Despite decades of classic BP episodes, I didn't get dx'd till early/mid 40's when my exH insisted I "see someone" in the midst of a massive depression (God, that year was rough!!). Being in such a state, I was dx'd with major depression and given Lexapro. Word to the wise, don't go to a GP with psych issues. I went straight up within 2 days. The only "screening" she did for BP was, "so, no highs?" (!!) I had no idea what she was talking about and too damned out of it to realize to ask. Many months of chaos before going to a pdoc and getting properly sorted. She actually looked into my history and asked the relevant questions. The BP patterns were obvious.

My first major depressive episode hit at 20. It came out of nowhere and I had no idea what was going on. I had to drop out of university. (I was probably hypomanic preceding it, as I remember it being the wildly BEST time of my life, and was very (and very atypically!) social. But I knew nothing about BP then, so don't really count it, even if it very likely was).

I just turned 56 (ugh!).

THIS had a ton to do with why I didn't get help at 20. It simply was.not.done. Nothing to see here!

I started having trouble at 14 but wasn’t dx bp until 18. And then I thought they were the crazy ones.

14 mdd. 15 bp1.

I was diagnosed around the age of 33 or 34. I’m 51 now. I was in therapy and on medication from age 16 on and off for major depression and an eating disorder. Sometime later on GAD got tacked on.

Somewhere in my early to mid twenties is when I was diagnosed Bipolar 1. That is the first time I saw a psychiatrist for medication. A few years prior, I was on medication prescribed by my Primary Care Physician, but that did not end well. Antidepressants made me manic. Prior to seeing a Psychiatrist, I had therapy back when I was 15-16 years old and was seeing a school counselor for mental health issues. They never told me what was wrong with me, but looking back, I had horrible mania...especially mixed. The episodes kept recurring. I still struggle with episodes, but there are periods of time where I have relief, compared to without the meds.

51 or so I think.

I was 28

24 when it was first suggested and I walked out; 26 when I said to my therapist "I'm bipolar aren't I?" and she looked relieved and started discussing getting the diagnosis confirmed by a pdoc which happened a few months later.

Around 31 for BPII tentatively. I don't remember exactly but I think around 35 for BPI.

Before that, I was diagnosed with major depression and on lots of SSRIs, which I am sure did not do my BP much good.

Though to be fair, my 2nd hospitalization, when I was around 23 years old, one of the pdocs on my case really felt I was bipolar, but the other 2 thought major depression, and they went with the majority.

In my 40's--I had a manic episode after taking my first antidepressant