When the sun shines
Well shine together
Told you.. I'll be here forever

Said I'll always be your friend

Took an oath
I'mma stick it out 'till the end

Yes brain trauma can include emotional traumas

Well, I got lucky with my dx when I was 21, because otherwise wouldn't have come out until about 6 years ago...but my folks SHOULD have noticed because I saw lots and lots of spiders and crows and things in my bedroom (that weren't there) from toddler age, and loved to crawl into boxes and close them up and just Sit There. Yeah - reaaaall normal.

I still think mine was med induced. I went to see this new pdoc who was a real hot shot with pharmacology, infact I had worked for him as a visiting psyche nurse. He started me on Serzone which began my journey to hell and suddenly I'm bipolar, I don't think so. I was so hypomanic I didn't sleep for days and was hospitalized with suicidal ideation and almost psychosis. I ended up having ECT!!! Which did save my life but was a little drastic. Guess I'll never know. I have to take BP meds and can't take any AD's except Cymbalta so I guess I'm bipolar 2 for ever now.

Announcing my intent to divorce my husband, and falling in love with two other men, all happened simultaneously.

I still have no idea whether the events were causes, or effects, of the onset of my illness.

I believe that it reared its ugly head when my sister passed away. I acted out and put myself in self destruct mode. It was looked at as I was just in pain.

I was DX bp shortly after a breakup with my 2nd husband. He was very abusive and I always made excuses for him because he was abused as a child. He was a incredible singer/songwriter and we had a band in the 80's that was kick ass in our small town of San Marcos, TX. Due to the abuse, we parted ways and I no longer communicate with him. I've moved on and so has he. The songs still remain dead 20 years later, because no one promoted them due to our breakup. Sometimes the past is better left alone.

Mine showed up when i started taking meds for depression. I got really manic and was up for days on end and didnt tell anyone about the side effects. I kept trying meds until I threatened to kill myself. I was finally diagnosed when I hospitalized the first time, in april 2007.

My current job appears to be my trigger. Just what I need. I've had the diagnosis for a while, but didn't have problems, until this job.

I think I've had it for as long as I can remember, I just didn't know what to look for. I have lived through being homeless with a newborn, on drugs, physically and sexually abused as a child, and raped twice. I believe that one or all of these events may have triggered the bp in me, though I wasn't diagnosed for it until 1 year ago. Sad! I wish I would have known before, it may have prevented many a situation in my life.

I'm not totally sure, but after my separation and divorce, things seemed to get worse. At fifteen, I was diagnosed with Major Depression and PTSD. Then later, Borderline Personality was added to the mix, and recently, Bipolar I. Maybe it was my divorce that pushed me over the edge and changed things for the worst. I dunno. I've always had very serious mental health issues, though.

I believe it started with my molestation as a child. I was dx'd with depression and have been treated for that till the last 2 wks. The real rollercoaster started after I had my kids and then my last job was nothing but stress. I had 2 surgeries in 1 1/2 yrs and the last one (a hysterectomy) I didn't need - the pain was from stress. I walked out of that job - which is something I have never done before. It was and is really scary to not know what the right thing to do is

Mine was the start of MEN o PAUSE.. Seriously, peri menopausal pushed me over. Have always had it just dx'd in August. AD's do not help unless with the right mix of another drug...

BS on DS (j/k)