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Bipolar disorder often hits in the late teen years, just when the chaos of coming of age and major life changes are also happening. Many teens check out the mental health chat rooms for help when they feel they cannot go to their parents.
One such letter from a teen follows. It is my hope that other young people first grappling with the effects of mania and depression will reach out wherever they can for help. Hello, My screen name is Crybaby. I am 16 years old. I will be 17 in September. I am unsure but I think I might be bipolar. I know my father is, although he won't take is medication or see the doctor. I'm seeking help right now so I can find out if I have this illness or not. I feel really alone right now. No one understands what's going on, including me. I don't want to be around my friends because I don't want to bring them down when I'm not feeling like my happy self. Yet, I do need someone to support me. I don't know. I just feel very alone. Can you tell me about yourself and your experience. You don't know how much this means to me. Sincere Thanks, (e mail address) Hi, Crybaby: My real name is Amy and I am usually online during the day if you are able to IM and need to. I was not diagnosed with bipolar until I was 24. I am almost 29 now. But I am certain my first manic episode happened at 17, or else I was manic during most of my childhood. I'll bet you're pretty savvy on the web and have found the general medical information about bipolar disorder. If not, then basically the way they diagnose it is if you have had a period of depression that lasts two weeks or more and includes either suicidal or hopeless thoughts and interferes with your life a lot. This is for Major Depressive Disorder. To be bipolar you must also have a period of two weeks or more where you have racing thoughts, feel invinsible, on top of the world, and possibly do very reckless things sexually, spend lots of money, destroy property, get very irritable, etc. This is for a manic episode and very, very few people have mania without depression. As I said I believe I have had symptoms of bipolar disorder since childhood but had my first full blown mania at 17. A lot of people don't have neat cycles where they're manic and depressed for two week stretches and then have some time in between where they're "normal." I have Rapid Cycling bipolar which means I can go from suicidally depressed to really manic in a short period of time, and although my meds keep me stable a lot, once I hit a rapid cycle then it's really tough to get out of. Go To Page: 1 2
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Amy Hillgren Peterson's Mental Illness topic, please visit the Discussions page. |
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