My 12-year-old daughter is currently going through an intense period of depression and we are concerned that she may be showing early signs of bipolar (extensive family history of BP1 on both sides). We're currently seeking referral to a specialist mood disorders clinic that we hope would be able to evaluate her as it seems that a more 'generalist' psychiatrist (such as she currently sees) wouldn't be able to make a diagnosis like this in someone so young. We're in the UK and it's _extremely_ rare for a child to be diagnosed with bipolar here.

Anyway, while we wait to work our way through the NHS (our daughter is seen through CAMHS, if anyone else has experience of them) I just wondered if anyone on this sub might be willing to share their experience of struggles with mental health during their childhood or early adolescence - even if you hadn't been diagnosed at that point. Did you have clear mania? Did you have depressive episodes, and if so what were they like and how long did they last? Did you have other symptoms like anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations? Were you treated and if so what helped? How old were you when you were diagnosed?

Our daughter has been in a very bad state for more than four months now and she is absolutely desperate to feel better. She's tried two SSRIs but had a very bad reaction to both - became very agitated and angry and ended up in the emergency room and with a brief hospitalisation both times (she managed to continue with sertraline for 8 weeks with no benefit, but became so agitated on fluoxetine that we had to stop it after only 5 days). We're desperate to find something that will help her but are worried that continuing to treat for depression and anxiety may not help and could possibly make things worse, if she is in fact dealing with bipolar. 

I would love to hear anyone's 'real life' experience of their own early emergence of symptoms - thanks for anything you can share.