SUBJECT: age of BP diagnosis-RELATION TO QUALITY OF LIFE

I was born bipolar. Always new there was something painfully wrong with me. It took the stupid doctors 31 years to figure it out. My life sucked before diagnosis. Meds were a godsend. I now have a "normal" life though this weekend I lost it and hope I can get it back by Monday morning.

It took a long time ill for me to get the help I have now. I'm 36 and was dx'd at 32, I think. Things were rough before and they are rough now. Right now as far as meds go, I'm most thankful for the anti-psychotic.

I was always treated for depression until I was in my mid 30's. It was a painful like before the meds. And it took a long time to find a good cocktail for me. Right now I'm having some depression but some of it is situational.I'm much better now that I'm taking antipsychotics and tranquilizers.

i was born bipolar too, knew somethin was wrong forever...took them 34yrs. to finally figure it out!

i was most thankful for the anti-psychotic til it stopped workin, so now im nuttier than i was before!! UGH

Unwell, you may be nuttier than you were before, but at least now you know where to find other nuts!!

Hi all, thanks for the replies. Unwell......a tight hug. Hope they will find u one that works.

But there was one thing i had in mind..probably not clear ont he post....how about say..did anyone have a job b4 diagnosis and after, just gave up? I am wondering at the psychological impact.

I think I've always had it, but wasn't diagnosed until I was 47. I think I suffered unnecessarily. i think my quality of life would have been a lot better had I been diagnosed earlier.

Ron, I lied about my BP on the postal application. I was mortified that they would even ask. There were people there much more whacked than I was (I'm talking about the customers)

I had jobs before and after, the diagnoses didnt change that.

I was diagnosed at 32. I had a pretty normal life before my diagnosis.

i was diagnosed with bp in april for the first time. I wanna say i was born with this because from my first memory as a child i can relate to everything that i do now.. My mom didnt understand so she never said anything to anyone.. even to this day she will say i am spoiled thats what my prob is and always will be. Drs say different but oh wells. so it took 22 years for me. cause im 22 now. and it was getting worst with time.

I like Fish and Chips

I had a comfortable middle class life until all the shit hit the fan. Nice husband (married 16 years), 2 great kids, nice home, a stay at home mom. I was treated for depression during those years but I also had mild mania which no one ever picked up on, I recognize that now. When I turned 35 my symtoms got much worse. I got very delusional for a long time and when my marriage fell apart I went and found work, that was added stress. Before you know it I was getting extremely psychotic and it was just downhill from there. That's when I wound up in the hospital and got the BP diagnosis. I had several jobs for many years after that and I have a college degree. But everytime I have had a major psychotic episode, it got me at work, and of course I lost the job as a result. I think the 3rd time it happened I was able to get on disability. Now I have a small amount of money and really good insurance which is so very important. Maybe I have given up. Well I just prefer to think of it as my priorities have changed. I can get by on less money pretty easily. I don't really want to risk the stress of the corporate field anymore, I know where that gets me. I have a good life, not complaining!

I was diagnosed on three different occasions, once when I was about 21 years old,but my mom convinced me that it was a wrong diagnosis, that I was just stressed out. So I took valium for a couple of months to go to sleep and that was that. The next time I was diagnosed was in my early 30's when I had a bout of post partum depression that lasted almost 2 years. I was in the millitary at the time and they were very leery about using the term psychosis on a Captain. Anyway, the last time I got diagnosed with BP was about 3 years ago when I finally got put on antipsychotics. Things have been better since then. If I had been more honest with my pdoc he probably would have prescribed the antipsychotics 10 years ago. But I never told him about the hallutionations until I had to go into inpatient care for a hypomanic incident.