Did you have a chance?

What age did you develop your disorder?
When were you first treated for it?
Was it a straight line or did you have multiple dxs before your current?

I was 7 when Anna showed up.

Hallucinations about 10 years ago.
Mood issues about 18 years ago.
I started therapy 27 years ago

The most interesting diagnosis I had was intermittent explosive disorder.

I was 33 (2005) when I first got diagnosed with bipolar. At first they said I had premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Then I saw an actual Pdoc who said it was bipolar NOS- not otherwise specified. Eventually my Pdoc said it was bipolar 1. I was diagnosed with depression while pregnant with N1 (1997) and post partum I’m depression after all 3. After N3 (2001) I know now it was post partum psychosis but no mental health professional would diagnose anything other than post partum depression.

Started treatment at 17 (I think), first dx was psychotic disorder NOS, then psychotic depression, then bipolar NOS, then it was kinda a shyt show back and forth of bipolar I and all the specifiers, schizoaffective-bp, and schizophrenia, adding PTSD, BPD, bulimia/eating disorder-unspecified, and ADHD along the way with an interesting misdiagnosis of DID at one point.

I don't really know when my "first" BP episode was as I was always all over the place and was really, really out of it in my teens especially later (if someone asked me about a teacher I had for 3+ semesters in high school I wouldn't know who they're talking about), but my first full blown hospitalization level mania was when I was 18 (10 yrs ago, where they said "Yeah, BPI")

I was 17 when I had my first psychic episode. But I hid it and carried on. That’s what I was taught.

Then when I was 28 my husband beat me badly and I had to go to the ER they set up an appointment for me with a psychiatrist. He diagnosed me with PTSD and major depression., atypical. After about 6 months he talked me into ADs

My life at that point devolved into chaos and homelessness and a revolving door of hospitals. Multiple diagnosis but mainly ptsd and bipolar but they still gave me ADs

Then I went no meds just a therapist. Got the PTSD resolved but still had problems with the bipolar. After a very bad episode I voluntarily sought out a psychiatrist and said no ADs and got put on my current cocktail which has worked now over 10 years.

I didn't start talking until I was 4 but that was in the early 90's so autism wasn't really a diagnosis. But I had a lot of behavior issues and anxiety in school that these days would have gotten me a ASD diagnosis much quickly.

I was 12 when when I started therapy and I was 13 when I was diagnosed with bipolar. All my hospitalizations happened a couple days before my period started. Now that I've had a hystrectomy my mental health is stable enough that my mental health care folks think I just had super bad PMDD the whole time and have major depressve disorder now.

My physical health has gone down the drain though. Its like I traded my mental health issues for physical ones. Not that they aren't a huge burden on my quality of life if not more.

I was diagnosed in 2021 but, looking back, it was clear that I first started experiencing symptoms in 2019. I actually remember thinking at the time, "If this isn't bipolar disorder, I don't know what is."

In 2021, I was in therapy after an abrupt, unexpected, departure of an abusive situation and was only getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night so my counselor referred me to a pdoc for sleep meds (I now can see I was experiencing other manic symptoms at that time too). That pdoc prescribed me a few meds, including prozac, which triggered a mixed episode. That pdoc wondered if I had bipolar disorder, but wasn't sure when she prescribed the prozac and I was actually the one who went to her saying I think I have bipolar disorder. Outside of GAD by my therapist, I wasn't given any other diagnoses in this process.

The pdoc who prescribed me prozac was not good at her jobs so starting meds was an absolute nightmare. On top of me being super sensitive to meds, she would change more than one thing at a time so I never know what was causing my side effects. Three years later, and a new pdoc who is WAY better, I have a med combo that has been working for awhile (I think less than a year though).

I was 17 when i moved away from an abusive house into my grannys. i was depressed since about age 14. anxiety since age 7. ate 17 they dxd me with major depression and anxiety. at 20 they dxd me with bp 2 and ptsd and gad. since then ive had bp1 with psychotc features and now schizoaffective bp type. the psychosis began when i was in my 20s. thy go back and forth the dr do but my psychologist and i agreee its probably schizoaffective bc i get hallluincations and paranoia and delusiosn eveen when im not in a mood epiosde. still have GAD and PTSD.

after livin with what my psych calls a psycho path fro 10 years and all th abuse i dont think i hada chance at a normal life.