It wasn't officially diagnosed in me until just a couple years ago(my late 30s) but its agreed by several doctors that I was born with this.

Yeah, I was born with it too. I remember severe mood swings when I was 3 and again at 6. I wanted to hurt myself so badly and I knew no one loved me at all.

I was 40 before I was diagnosed and only then bc of having my first manic episode that went into psychosis. The gene definitely runs on my dad's side of the family. He comes from a huge family and had several sisters and I have a couple of cousins that have it. I was treated for only unipolar depression before 40 that I dealt with since my mid-twenties.

I was in my 40s.

You can't really diagnose yourself. problem is that there are many other disorders that look like bipolar even to doctors - but as the public has never heard of them they don't look them up and find that they fit their symptoms too.

Are you going to get a diagnosis?

I was 31. I had lost hope of ever finding out what was wrong with me. Thank goodness for a major suicide attempt. THEN doctors believed me!

I was just very recenly diagnosed within the last few months (mid January of this year), I'm going to be 22 in a few days. I'd been having the symptoms for the past year and a half and just kept thinking that they'd go away, but they obviously got worse. I just started to realize that I didn't feel like myself and that I could no longer ignore my symptoms because they were becoming life threatening. Now that I've been diagnosed, I've had family members recently tell me that I'd always been really moody, so perhaps I've had this my whole life and it just escalated within the last few years.

My fibromyalgia diagnosis led to my mania and hospitilization.....
Why? because I was given SSRI's for the pain (why in the world I don't know) and thoss ere notorios for putting me into manic mode. even a single dose of st. john's wort threw me manic!!!!! Anyway, to make a long story short, I was out of touch with reality, but real bad, so I was hospitilized the hopitial said schizophrenic for sure. my doctor says I'm true Bipolar, and my diagosis for the medicaid whre I live is schizoaffective, becuase they won't approve my medication for Bipolar. Go figure!!!!

It's good to finally be diagnosed isn't it? Now we can all have a Life!

I knew I had bipolar disorder by the time I was 21 just an instinct. I was officially diagnosed last year by a psychiatrist. I never mentioned to her that I even thought I was. She knew I was manic because I was talking fast and mixing up topics. I have always been that way my friends never understood it but knew that I would talk about one topic then several others then go back to the original topic. They joked nicknamed me "skip" I actually started exhibiting bipolar symptoms at the age of 9 I started to hear voices at this age and hallucinated badly. Until last year when I started seroquel.

I am 29

Well I just always thought I was just a weirdo. But in 2003 a group of coworkers staged an INTERVENTION for me and it was terrible and traumatic and it's taken me ten years to become one with my bipolar ness. If that's even possible??

Thanks for the responses everyone, I'm thinking about seeing a psychologist again and getting another opinion if I can.

Hey there. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder 8 years ago. When I was 20. I had had the symptoms for a very long time. Mood swings, insomnia, being with drawn, morbid day dreams and night mares, never having a true identity or sense of self, fear, paranoia, seeing and hearing things that aren't there. Therapy and meds helped me so much. I needed to talk about my life, childhood and traumas. The thought of being bipolar used to be my worst fear but now that I know what it is it has helped me cope a lot. There are going to be good days and bad days. I hope everything works out for you.

you need a psychiatrist not a psychologist unless it's a clinical psychologist.

A psychiatrist is a doctor trained in doing the diagnostics and can prescribe - they are full MDs that specialise in mental health.

A psychologist can mean almost anything but generally they are not competent to diagnose unless they are clinical psychologists and even then they usually need a psychiatrist to over see them.

I've had it undiagnosed all my life since early childhood. I completely flipped out (REALLY) and got diagnosed by a therapist as bp1 last year. Just last month my pdoc diagnosed me as "mood disorder ns". I really think I'm actually everything. Yesterday I wasn't in my brain and today I am and I'm crying too. I think I should take my meds. I was seriously abused as a toddler and child for many years. If you can imagine it...well. Everything hit the fan last year and it was publicly and horribly. Talk about one fucked up situation. What a jacked up life! My "MOOD" ring says all my life...winky...lol