I didn’t really realize at the time what was happening, but now looking back I can see that I was experiencing symptoms of bipolar back when I was 11 years old. I didn’t really have any language or framework to talk about or understand how I was feeling until much later. I was experiencing serious…
The first sign my mental health was going downhill was getting hit like a tonne of bricks with anxiety, panic disorder and OCD the week I found out I was pregnant with my first child. I was treated and things were okay for a few years. Then I fell into a deep dark depression that…
I first noticed something wasn’t right as a teenager. I experienced symptoms of depression like sadness, withdrawal, and insomnia. The withdrawal was pretty intense. I ended up dropping out of school for almost an entire year. I experienced symptoms of mania a few years later in college. One of the most intense symptoms was lack…
I began to distance myself from a lot of kids my age when I was around eight years old because I was way more sensitive to emotional issues than others were, and was often excluded because of it. The symptoms of bipolar range in a variety of ways, but I experimented with very risky behaviours…
I first started becoming aware that something wasn’t right when my family and friends were becoming worried and telling me how extreme my moods were, but it wasn’t until I had my first major mania episode and ended up hospitalised that I finally admitted there was a problem. For me, mania feels like the world…
I’ve always gotten into trouble and had ups and downs since I was a kid; self harm since middle school, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and bouts of rage. But after my mom died when I was 29 (five years ago), I thought I might have developed autistic traits- extreme sensory overload, agitation, obsessions and constant listing…
I’ve felt like something wasn’t right my entire life, but my moods started to really form their ups and downs around my teenage years. I’d have periods where I’d feel like I was on top of the world, as if driven by a motor and being really productive and creative. But these were always followed…
My diagnoses are Bipolar Type 1 with psychotic features and Borderline Personality Disorder, so I have drawn-out periods of mania and depression, and when those end I still have problems with identity, emotional stability, anger, and suicidality. I first noticed something was wrong when I was in high school and would switch between phases of…
I have Bipolar Disorder Type 1, which means that I get both full blown depression and mania. My depression started when I was about 15 years old, but I didn’t see a therapist until I was 19 years old. I was suicidal and my friend encouraged me to see a therapist at that point. After…
Instability seemed to be a part of my life. Emotions were a rollercoaster and some days I didn’t recognise myself. I had been looking into diagnoses such as borderline personality disorder, but medical professionals were reluctant to listen to another young woman with ‘anxiety and depression’. Despite my distress, I was told that I had…