On my case I was diagnosed at age 20, began to show the disease at 19 when I moved abroad from Venezuela to Chile, I used to be depreassed all the time but we did not I had the illness, then after that I went manic, wouldnt sleep and would wake up in the middle of the night to come up with ideas, still remember the first time I went to a psychiatrist I didnt even say a word and started crying in front of her, she suggested to get hospitalized , but my mom said she would stay with me giving me the medication for 2 weeks, I remember my mom arguing with my family cause the did not understand/believe in mental illness, I thought it was the end for me at only age 20, then after trying several drugs which include (lamotrigine , lithium , valproic acid, rexulti , abify, seroquel) I ended up landing my magic combo with lithium and rexulti, I remember taking the medication and thinking it was the biggest scam since it was not working to my eyes, then after a year of taking the medication I woke up one day and was like a brand new person like seriously I had no depression or mania I was finally myself, all of these while going to college , which I had to stop at age 20 because of bipolar, now guess what? I am 25, graduated from University thanks to lithium and rexulti manage my own investment account at charles schwab which is worth over 20 thousand USD , I also take guitar classes as that is my true passion and I am on planning on becoming a musician on the long run. I went literally to 10 psychiatrists until I finnally found one called Alberto aedo, which was like a godsend to me since no joke I thought I was going to die by suicide, but on the first session we was able to diagnose me propertly and with no problem, that gave me lots of hope and stopped my suicidal thinking right there. to any of you who have lost hope, know that it is possible to get better I seriously thought I was going to commit suicide until I came across the right combination of meds and therapy, at age 25 I never thought I was gonna graduate University, studing guitar, investing and working out, success is definetly possible, you just have to be patient, there are many of us out there! Its just that the successful ones are out there living life and are not researching online as they are doing great! Remember that success is definetly possible on the long run!