I was obssessed with the Transcendental Era... the whole "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" struck a chord for sure...

I had a psychotic break in high school but I managed to evade the police and didn't die. Everyon thought I was just an asshole wanting attention. I knew something was jacked up but what the hell I just smoked moer pot to stop it

I always realized that my thinking was different from most peoples, but in high school I had a serious depression at age 14 and was finally diagnosed at 26.

as with #3..I've always noticed thar I'm different from other people. Even when I was very young.

I suffered from major depression at around 14.
Was then manic from 16-17.
Diagnosed at 18.

I guessed something was wrong at about fifteen. I was hearing voices, then.

I was diagnosed at the age of 27 when I got so depressed I stopped eating, showering, going out....I pretty much lived in my bed for 2 weeks straight. I only got up to go to the bathroom. I lost 25 pounds in 2 weeks!

before kindergarten. Sunday school was a living hell for me. I would be so manic and full of anxiety I can't even explain it.
Another anomoly: We went to the same church my whole early life, but I couldn't recognize people, and I couldn't ever remember where my class was. I think it was just panic, but who knows? I've always had memory problems. And I always get lost.

I remember having overwhelming feelings of depression as far back as elementary school. I was too young to know anything so I figured that's just how life was.

I got the sense that something was wrong in high school. I would compare myself to the people and see a major difference in the way they behaved. Everyone seemed to be happy all the time with no worries at all. I was somewhat of an outsider with only a handful of friends, I couldn't concentrate on what the teacher would say for more than 5 minutes, and I always looked like I had woken up on the wrong side of bed.

Everything came to a head during my 20's and I've been seeking help ever since. Had I gotten help earlier on, I think I could have avoided some of the problems facing me today.

i started to feel different, ie, apart from people in the fourth grade, kind of down with moments of hyperness and anxiety... by high school it was obvious, altho' i was more depressed than hypomanic

I was diagnosed in junior high as having depression with anxiety. So, I was treated for years through high school and college for those two items. Even after the first suicide attempt, a proper diagnosis was never made. So, I stopped taking medicine and started self medicating by drinking and drugs. It wasn't until after my second suicide attempt and second psych hospital that the diagnosis of bipolar was made. So, I waited for slightly over 14 years.

This thread is so sad, for me. My young life was one of difference, confusion, panic, and FEAR. I've been told by people my whole life that I'm the most fearful person they've ever known.

let's see...i'm 48 now, i've been depressed all my life, on medication for most of the past 25 years, but i just got diagnosed bp 2 months ago...nobody ever asked me the right questions and it wasn't until i went in and said something is not right that they thought to question why...

interesting topic. I felt different as far back as I can remember, when my age was a single digit. I just didn't feel like I fit in with everyone else. But at 13 I discovered alcohol and didn't care, I fit with the 'drugies' of my time.

reply #7, omg, i was hyper in kindergarten and the anxiety/panic thing, thats me too... like forgetting where my desk was........ it was horrid

i've always known i was different...but it's always been brushed off as me being the "moody, artist type". it wasn't until i was 28 or so and under incredible amounts of stress that the bipolar came to a head and i was diagnosed.