How old were you when you showed your 1st signs of bipolar?

Looking back, when were the first indications, even if you didn’t interpret them to be mental illness?

What were you experiencing?

I remember times of both overwhelming energy and overwhelming depression at four, in kindergarten and at home.

Teenage years depression in early teens and mania in mid teens

The depression started when I was 9 and by 11-12 I was having mood swings, not huge but definitely cycling up and down. I was finally diagnosed at 42.

Been experiencing mental illness since I was 13. Hard to say about the bipolar, didn't become a problem until my early 20s. Didn't become an obvious problem until I tried to live alone at 26. Early signs would be how I would get really chatty and have much more confidence and act super happy but then I'd tell people how sad I was. Just major changes in my mood that I couldn't explain.

Definitely by 14 with significant anxiety and perhaps some depression. It was bad enough that I finally told my mom (after a period of secrecy) and she took me to the doctor. He prescribed Buspar (buspirone). At 15, it worsened more, then turned mixed. The school advised my parents to take me to a child therapist after a rather traumatic event at school. By 16, it was a purer form of mania. I decided to "find God" then soon after joined the Roman Catholic church. It all eased when I was 17, and I showed only occasional milder symptoms until short periods at 20 and then 24. ["Milder" may seem significant to some. It's all relative.]

It's hard to say if I had any bipolar symptoms before 14. I certainly had periods where I exhibited some bipolar symptoms, but not severe ones. I remember feeling elated and grandiose as a little kid. I was called gabby by many people and scolded for talking over them. I had temper issues sometimes and brief "down and anxious" periods. I was definitely distractable a lot and the "star of the show". Was that normal in childhood or part of my young personality? It's hard to say. I guess it becomes a disorder when it becomes dysfunctional enough to really affect one's life in a noticeable way.

I think I was 17 at the time. I didn't think much was wrong other than having "invisible roommates." My boyfriend at the time brought up that I might be bipolar before I even thought about it. I was first diagnosed with psychosis NOS which changed to bipolar which changed to schizoaffective.

I was anorexic by 8. The major turning point when I knew I was seriously messed up was 11. I don't have a good memory especially about episodes so I'll go with 11. I didn't get medication treatment until 22.

I've had serious anxiety since I was a child. I was fine in highschool. I didn't show any symptoms until I was 19, after a traumatic event.

As a teenager, I heard voices and would have long conversations with myself out loud. I also asked my parents to take me to a psychiatrist but that pdoc just said I was "a normal teenager".

The depression
Started at 15.

I didn't have any signs until I was 38. My psychosis came on quickly and was severe. The doctors think maybe the cause was adrenal or hormonal. They still aren't sure about my diagnosis. I've never experienced mood swings per say.

For me it could have been as early as nine, but the major symptoms started in my early teens. Started seeking treatment at 22 but as they were often mixed no one picked up that I have Bipolar (and not just PTSD or BPD and Major Depression) until I was 37. By then it had turned into a monster. I wish I had of been properly diagnosed at 22.

Psychotic mania at 16. After the death of my cousin who was my best friend it started when I wrote a 30 page paper in one night. Graduated to hearing the baseball players on my team poster talking to me. I spent hours talking to that team photo listening to them talk to me. I held down 3 jobs. I spent my late nights either listening to West Coast baseball games while playing jacks at break-neck speed for hours or calling a sports talk show 3 or 4 times a night, always about the same thing...my favorite baseball player sending me love notes and not getting enough playing time. The host put up with my calls because I was a child, until one night I repeatedly called 12 times. He asked me if my parents knew what I was doing. My parents had their own psychotic disorders. I wasn't exactly on their radar. The episode started in May 1976 and burned itself out in September 1976. I was fried. My 4.0 GPA fell to 1.8 that term. I could barely communicate with anyone. Because of my cousin's death, everyone left me alone. I wish someone had noticed.

I think it was just before my early teens.

Severe depression at 20. May have been preceeded by hypo/mania as the time before the depression was the best time of my life. Super sociable and outgoing, not my normal at all. I can't say with certainty (aside from the depression, which was clear-cut and "out of nowhere". Yanno, unless it was the crash...)

High school, maybe 15 or so, mostly depression and sleeplessness. Got worse in college with anorexia, barely sleeping, overspending. It was full on by my mid 20s. Didn’t get the bipolar diagnosis until I was 30. 31 something like that (41 now). Was on SSRIs and diagnosed with major depression, panic disorder, and the ED. Lots of docs blamed my bipolar issues on the ED.

I got hit with severe depression around 13 or 14, and it didn't lift until I was around 17.