When I rode the bus they did talk about me. I could hear them. They make fun of me and throw things at me sometimes.

I don't find those things to be particular to BP. I did those things too, but more typical of BP were my moods being up and down and up up and down down...

I would be a straight A student for three months then all of the sudden I'd be making D's and F's.

I always hid in my room and drew or wrote sad, dark, abusive and graphic art or stories. I was so rebellious and self injurous that my parents got me into counseling at 9. The therapists told my parents that I was a problem child with behavior problems. As a teen and once I got my own car, I would just take off and be gone for hours or days. When i was mad I would wreck things that meant a lot to me and then cut myself up afterwards. Yes, all this a a child and teen. I was finally diagnosed 2 years ago.

Other than running my mouth 100 mph as a kid, I don't think I really displayed the typical BP traits. I may have had a few, but I can't remember if I did. I was an "only child" so all the other kids were always at my house playing with my stuff! I've been told by my mother and other family members that even when I was little, I always spoke my mind or didn't show respect and would tell a grown up to shut up.

But I do not think that was bipolar traits......... it was just being a brat.

The only other thing was I was a risk taker from a very early age.

I think life experiences thru the years started to bring on the traits one by one......... and then WHAM at 42!

I wrote a "limerick" when I was 11 that my pdoc uses to illustrate childhood depression in bipolar children. He was very moved by it. It's quite simple as a child would write: There once was an umbrella Strella, she would always frown, from going up and down. And that was my umbrella Strella.

What gemi said! You should see the stuff the teachers wrote in the comment section on me! One of there favorite lines was, "well, she's back to her same old patterns..." The grades showed it. Unfortunately, BP wasn't known of let alone ADD or ADHD back then for me and so I was considered as acting out. Hence, I was physically and emmotionally punished by authority figures. So started the PTSD.
That was more damaging than any kid picking on me. I was a tomboy, and grew up in a neighborhood full of boys, so I would just beat up the snot that was picking on me!

I was way too smart for my own good and got in a lot of trouble for cutting class cause i was bored.

these all sound like classic signs of bp. i know what i went through in hinds side was that of a future bp. even though i didnt know it then my life was about to become f-- up

I always thought something was wrong with me or at least different. I never could understand why I was always in a turmoil and misunderstood.

i once hid in my closet and screamed when my dad found me i told him i was suposed to be a famous actress and it made me frigted cuz i didnt know how to deal with it

My daughter was obsessively perfect. She was so hard on herself, I never had to yell at her. She was afraid for anyone to be mad at her. Other kids really did like her, but she was always saying Nobody likes me. She was afraid something would happen to me.
She would put on a good face, but about once a year each year of elementary school, she would have a meltdown, breakdown crying, let it all out at once. Then once she released it, she would be pretty good for another year.
She started with all out panic attacks around 9 or 10.

peed the bed... no just kidding.
I had anger spurts, where I would ruin things, cut, break things, and all that. Then I was this fun, outgoing, motivated person, a cheerleader. i felt like two different people. the happy me, and the one that i didn't want anyone else to know. I felt like i had a secret childhood... hiding my true emotions and all...

I loved to be the center of attention, was involved in everything I wanted to do try quit, I also had nightmares from the age of 3 til teens, and showed signs of precog abilities.

I was the subject of a research study by the Baylor College of Medecine on left/right brain theory. On the right side of my brain I was an artistic and musical genious. My left side...Village IDIOT!