Bipolar Disorder Support Group

I agree! It took the doctors 10 years after my initial diagnosis of Major Depression.

max, thank you so much for this article...I have been saying this for awhile now...
I never went to doctor when i could change the world....only when i failed and was depressed....they always gave me anti depressants and now i know they put me in states of mind that i dont even want to remember.....manic...over the top....I did just horible manic things..now i am med free cause i am afraid of psy meds...
i found this article interesting....i have have told them .

I suspect it is much the same everywhere.

Diagnosis of a BP1 sectioned will be quick - but BP2s are likely to take a while.

I was seen as being depressed and anxious - I never told my GP about some of the things I had done in the past basically because I was ashamed or because I felt it was in the past.

i never told my doctors either, because of being ashamed or embarrased....but they did not ask the correct questions either...
i sure wish there were questions that would place us right where we should be diagnosed.
I am sure there is things that i will still have to pay a conquense and i am getting old......now that i am aware of what i might do, i step back a minute or two...not that always helps but i try

Funny, I was exactly the same as curious and hot dog.

My first Manic episode ,that escalated to psychosis ...22

DX at 50, after a psychotic episode

Hypomanic in all the years in between

Great article Max.. it took me several years to get the right diagnosis as well.. Scary stuff!...x

Well truthfully, there was never a shred of evidence to suggest to me (or to my hubby, friends or employer!) that I was REMOTELY bipolar, until I exploded @ age 39 after a series of consecutive life crises!
Plus it is strange that in my lifetime, I never once was compelled to see a dr. for anti-depressants; nor even suffered so much as a day of the baby blues with four children.
A book worth reading is: "Anatomy of an Epidemic" by Robert Whitaker (2010). While so much concerning bipolar is speculative, and the profession will admit themselves that they know little about it, Whitaker presents an argument supported by some psychiatrists.
The argument being that a much higher percentage of the population is NOW subject to bipolar illness, than at any given point in the past. The contention is that anti-depressants may very well cause a change in biochemistry of the brain; in other words setting higher numbers UP for this illness....which might never have otherwise emerged.
I can't say if this is true or not. It certainly does not apply to ME, as I never dabbled w/anti-depressants, yet hit into major-league bipolar I, to everyone's shock and dismay at a late age.
But all avenues of thought and theories are certainly worth consideration, in order to find a way to either limit, if not someday CURE, this condition. Great article, btw!

this makes me feel more hope.
maybe i will be taken seriously.
in about 12 years time :)

great article though, its scary how long it takes to diagnose this. :/ x

Excellent article thanks.