Do you think you were born with bipolar disorder?

[cowgirlnerd]

We know that bipolar is a chemical imbalance in our brain, most likely inherited, but time and time again, I hear people say, "I wasn't bipolar as a child.".....  I feel pretty certain that I was as far as I can remember.

There are triggers that cause our episodes - given.  

Do you think YOU were born with bipolar disorder or it developed?  

[farraway]

"Onset" is the first appearance of the signs (or symptoms) of an illness OR the beginning of an illness.

[Jade59]

I believe the stress of being molested until I was 11 is what activated it too the fullest...

[LetaB]

There have been some scientific arguments that stress can be a factor in causing the onset of BP as well.


Onset - that means you already had it but it hadn't showed up yet.

[Amyjo101]

I really think my daughter was born this way... I just think it decide to become active and she become severely symptomatic once puberty started but she also had some trauma as a child(molestation) that I can attribute to some of her other symptoms...

Some research says that your predisposed to the disorder and stress or rocky childhood can cause it to become active... I don't know for sure what the issue is with her if she was born this way and it just happen to become active or if she became bipolar due to the trauma...

She has ALWAYS been a little odd...from the time she was born so I really think she was born with the disorder it just took the trauma and puberty to set it off...

[farraway]

This is an interesting survey!
I now know that I developed my symptoms in the late teens.

"You can never be absolutely certain" would be my additional point here.
Genetics and biology definitely have a strong influence in the onset of BP, but this is not the whole story.
There have been some scientific arguments that stress can be a factor in causing the onset of BP as well.
The scientists just don't exactly know yet.

[LetaB]

All Bipolar people are born this way. It may not show up until puberty or even later but that's partially because you're too busy to notice your symptoms until they progress - often dramatically really showing because of some emergency in your life. You can't catch it - it's in your blood.