Can you not have bipolar disorder when you were little, but have it when you're older?

Question

That's how I feel now... I'm either REALLY depressed...or really happy....and when I'm mad, I'm REALLY mad..... But I wasn't like this when I was a kid....

Also, how can I get rid of it?

Answer 1

Yes, but you need to be aware that Bipolar Disorder causes mood swings that are much slower than people think. Bipolar 1 has mood episodes (mania or severe depression) that last months or even years. Bipolar 2 has episodes that last months, and rapid cycling bipolar sufferers can have epsiodes lasting weeks.

If your mood changes form minute to minute, or hour to hour, it's unlikely to be Bipolar Disorder.

Answer 2

Absolutely. Until recently it was thought that bipolar did not appear until the teens or twenties. This is no longer current thought. Data has been gathered by psychiatrists about how bipolar pts. may have been different as children from other kids who never grew up to be bipolar. There are diagnostic criteria available to diagnose young children with bipolar now. It is still considered rare, and the mood and behavioral problems have to be extreme to even consider a diagnosis, but I have heard of kids as young as 3 receiving the diagnosis.

Despite the terrible advice you've received thus far, know that if you think you have a mental illness, it bears following up on. Life without treatment can be a living hell as evidenced by the suicide rate among those with depression and bipolar. As well, there's more than one kind of bipolar. Type 1 is the classic ups and downs, type 2 is mainly depression (severe) with hypomania (mild), type 3 is mild depression with major highs . . . And as for drugs, so many people say that it's unnatural to use chemicals to treat our brains. I would ask them to go back to chemistry basics and remind themselves that we humans are made up of chemicals. Bipolar is usually treated with a mood stabilizer: lithium (naturally occurring salt), a variety of anti-epileptic drugs (valproate, carbemazapine, tegratol, etc.), the newer class of atypical antipsychotics (seroquel, risperdone, etc.) and sometimes with an antidepressant, in addition to a mood stabilizer. Treatment isn't fun because of side-effects, but it makes life more stable and it keeps you off the edge of a bridge.

Answer 3

Where do we begin hmmm? It is possible that you did not have depressioin as a child or it could have been a mild case that's just starting? How old are you? It usually starts in your late teens/early 20's. How long have been up and down? What's going on in your life? Ever tried drugs? I don't mean to sound like a shrink but they will ask you the same things. If you start to feel like you are losing control,can't stop crying,undereating/overeating,sleeping too much,feeling daring or euphoric or untouchable and then the next thinking of what it would be like if you died! SEEK help immediately. I had a sense that everything was soooo overwhelming even simple things daily activities. Try to contact NAMI which a mental health org. If you truely have it this you CANNOT just snap out of it or treat on your own! Good luck!

Answer 4

Yes, that is how it generally happens. Most mental illness including bipolar disorder begins during or right after adolescents. It can occur at any time in life. It can be treated with medication, but please insist on being evaluated by a psychiatrist rather than to be treated by a general practitioner.

Answer 5

yes......ask your dr. what is bi-polar disorder and ask him/her to say it aloud to all people in the world so we can all understand it.

it is time to find out what the dr./s are recognizing/omitting in the discovery of mental health....but until they come to a consensus on it......we shall (us humans who carry the torch) continue to explore what is a human and how is the mind of human different among us humans.

all personal experiences have cause and support for there to exist some response to ideas and conditions of person and environment.

for there to be some possibility that a human condition exists which may be typified as this or that psychological type there must be a quality of inherent ability to respond as such .... given the nature of........on and on........

so....people respond as either very depressed or very joyed because of the nature of their minds to process experiences and relate it emotionally.

it is not disease....it is realization. and it occurs for good reason.

lets' keep talking......the dr.s are learning and the lawyers want more answers.

be well all

Answer 6

see i have all that includeing anxiety its not that you havent had it it may just be appearing to you could be from long long ago ..i go to counsiling now and it helps not all the way but its worth a shot..and i was told that you can never get rid of it you have to learn how to control it

Answer 7

Don't pay attention to all those pharmacutical (I know, I can't spell) commercials. Everyone has moods and emotions, we all get by. If you are so bad that you repeatedly try killing yourself, or you just can't function, then and only then in EXTREME cases should you get help. We ae being brainwashed into thinking that things like your moods arent' normal, but they are. We all grow up, change, lose a little bit of ourselves and become new people throughout our lives. It's normal.

Answer 8

One, you need a doctor to diagnose BPD. Two, it is possible that it can develop over time. Three, it's treated with lithium compounds, but you can't cure it (IE: you can't get rid of it, but you can control it.)

Answer 9

If bipolar, breakdowns happen around age 18... or later.

With medication it won't be noticable much at all.

Be sure this is what you have...

Answer 10

yes in fact most people dont develop it until their twenties or forties even