At the age of 45 I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. Shortly after that, with ADD. The combination of those two (very common with bi-polar) has had a catastrophic impact on my life. Some of the stories I’ve read on this site indicate that, in a lot of ways, they have had some success at a few levels. Namely careers and education.
My ADD/bi-polar has resulted in over 36 jobs in 30 years. I don’t have a college education because of my condition, which went undiagnosed for 44 years. I just thought I was a loser, and so did many others. It was somewhat of a relief to finally understand the cause of my life long failures.
At the same time it has resulted in greatly compounding my depression when I think of what my life could have been had I been diagnosed and treated early in life. I have a 126 IQ. According to IQ data there are a number of desirable professions attainable to someone of my slightly above average intelligence (average is 100). I grew up in small towns in the midwest. In the 70’s these areas didn’t have the level of medical professionals that would have been required to diagnose or treat.
Without knowing it I was just screwed, and had no chance of success; which has been the result. I am still being treated by two different Psychiatrists and a psychotherapist with no results. The myriad of meds tried has not helped to this point. The motivation of my submission is to let anyone in my situation, and I would imagine there are quite a few, know they aren’t alone and to not feel like a loser, or inferior to your peers, friends or family.