i had a prolonged hypomania (or mild mania) at 17 when i was sophomore in college (young due to changed school systems, good grades). then at 18 i had the longest and weirdest manic episode probably in my life. i only had a mild depression/anxiety in between.

i graduated but decided to go back to a different university to study CS (a practical field). at 20 the first of several long and crippling depressions hit. i got the BS by the skin of my teeth leaving a trail of regret for a couple of classes i know i would have enjoyed if i could have got myself to them, and a host exasperated and bewildered professors who seeing my ability, were kind enough to give me help and second chances... with inexplicably absent results.

subsequently i worked and managed to run the gauntlet between highs and lows until around age 30 when i had a terrible crash, saw a therapist who sent me to a pdoc who finally dx'd and treated me.

i knew what manic depression and bipolar was but it had never occurred to me that i had it... until i read a couple of books by Kay Redfield Jamison... esp. An Unquiet Mind...

~ waves ~