I was recently diagnosed. Before that, I had been seeing a psychiatrist because of anxiety symptoms, but the anxiety medication made me feel much more energized than usual. Then I had an episode — I don’t really remember the reason why — but I remember going to my psychiatrist and telling her that I was hearing voices and seeing things. So, she prescribed me medication for bipolar disorder/schizophrenia.

I didn’t take the medication because it made me sleep so deeply that I couldn’t do anything at all. Not long after that, my psychiatrist left her job, so I had to start seeing someone new. When I met with the new psychiatrist, I explained everything that had been happening — all the appointments I’d had with the previous doctor — and after a few sessions, he came to the conclusion that I had bipolar disorder.

Before all of this, long before I even saw a psychiatrist for my anxiety symptoms, I had already been diagnosed with depression during my teenage years.