Do you think anything triggered the start of your BP?

Genetics and probably severe stress. Mood disorders rampant on both sides of my family and schizophrenia on one side (an uncle) , I have schizoaffective bipolar type. My first episode was severe depression at like 14 years old but I wasn't dx'd with bipolar/schizoaffective until 18/19 after psychosis and manic episodes. I grew up homeless so that was extremely stressful so I guess I had it coming from both angles, genetic and stress wise and it really set off as a young adult which is pretty typical I guess

I had had depression all my adult life but wasn't treated with any med for that until my 40s. It was an antidepressant (high dose of Celexa) that kicked me into a psychotic mania. Plus oodles of job stress, and many other kinds of stresses. I had also had a concussion a few months before that.

I was abused as a child. My father is and was an alcoholic with bipolar. I don't drink.

So there are many factors that contributed to my falling in. Anyone of them could have tipped me over the edge from basically well to definitely unwell.

Me, too.

I think major life changes triggered my BP. I think I first felt depression in junior high . I didn`t recognize it as depression then. When I started college I also felt depression too. It was from that major life change too and disappointment . I felt that I would never amount to anything. I was diagnosed with major depression first. I wasn`t diagnosed with bipolar disorder until much later. So I think mine was triggered by major life changes

Bad genes, sexual abuse, a verbally and physically abusive father I felt I could never win his approval, a shooting incident later in grad school, more sexual abuse. Pretty much lived my entire childhood in fear. Not helped by having no friends.

Yes. It started when my dad died, got worse following my divorce, custody battle, job loss. It got so bad before I got help, it devastated my life that was falling apart anyway.

Postpartum after my second child 100%. It was a traumatic birth. Plus family history.

Bipolar runs in my family, so I had a genetic predisposition already. I was showing symptoms after being abused as a child, but the real catalyst for it was being bullied relentlessly in middle school after I came out to the wrong person (who proceeded to tell everyone in the grade). I had glass bottles thrown at my head on the bus, which gave me a mild concussion though luckily the bottles didn't break. I was physically beaten up and called all sorts of names, told I was going to hell, even got death threats. The school did nothing about it. Needless to say I finished middle school from home and did online high school. When I was on crutches after I broke my foot, a kid threw a dodgeball at me while I was standing off to the side, causing me to fall and sustain another injury.

The cruelty of those kids made things go from bad to worse. So my bipolar really became a problem around age 12-13. I was always type 2, but they didn't diagnose me until I was 18 because type 2 can't exist until you're an adult, apparently.