I was diagnosed Bipolar about 14 years ago and the 6 years prior before the diagnosis the doctors or psychiatrist would say a severe anxiety disorder. This is about my son..When the school year started my sons mood changed over the course of two weeks.. He is 15 nothing to strange about that..He became very worried about school and started switching back and forth between the magnet and high schools..The magnet school is an accelerated prep school funded by different organizations.. He started crying more and more.. I took him to the doctor and the doctor gave him two antidepressants.. I made an appointment with a psychiatrist and it took three weeks to get an appointment.. Trying to explain to the teachers, principal and guidance counselor what was going on and how much school he was missing was very trying.. I stopped sleeping and started on shift sleeping my husband would keep watch because he started leaving suicide notes around the house.. That's when I got really scared.. I took him to a children's psychiatric wing at a mental hospital and they proceeded to due a long interview with him and decided he did not want to kill himself but instead wanted the way he was feeling to stop.. After that it got worse he would just start screaming out and crying calling himself a loser..and that's when his face started contorting like mine did when I was hospitalized over 20 years ago.. My husband was crying I was crying My son was crying.. It was one of the saddest times in my life.. We finally had our appointment at the psychiatrist's office he got a very swift bipolar diagnosis based on my mental history, the questionnaire which is a little bit ridiculous if you ask me. How do you feel about yourself on a scale from 1-5?? scores you know it was scored at the end.. He was put on three different medications and Melatonin for sleeping.. He stopped eating and didn't want to take the medications even though I would beg him to..He said the pills would make him numb and he wanted to feel the pain.. He started seeing a therapist immediately he would type these really long letters to take to her.. He was seeing her two to three times a week. It all seemed like a horrible nightmare.. Slowly over the next few weeks he got happier and stronger started eating.. etc..I had got to where I would only sleep 2 to 3 hours at a time and its been over 5 months since this happened and I still only sleep 2 to 3 hours at a time..He got moved around from classes to classes at the school and had missed well over a month.. I had a long fight with the school board not legal but I did have to yell at the principal, and the social worker, and call every person on the school board to get the help I needed..Every time I would go talk to the schools they would hand me a list of mental health services in the county..Three quarters of the people on the lists they gave me were out of business or had moved years ago.. I told them my psychiatrist from 10 years ago was on the list and she had moved to Washington. they said oh really.. So the list had not been updated in 10 years.. No one cared enough to update it and they still haven't,,In the end I have burnt my bridges with the school system but was able to get my son in the classes he needed to be in.. They had told me it could be detrimental to his mental health to have him in the advanced classes but in the end he ended up with all A's and one B..Many months later now he is happy and healthy has a girlfriend and a lead in a musical.. He takes his mediations every morning and no longer sees a therapist although I will take him back in a heartbeat if he needs to go..He sees the psychiatrist every 3 or 4 months.. I do worry about him because I know if it is indeed bipolar disorder it will come back again it always does..  I know this time around he will know whats going on with him and his body..The whole time he was sick he would sleep in the same room as me I on the couch and he was on the love seat..Seems like a bad dream.. I had hoped I would not pass this down to my children but it appears I have.. Mental illness is so taboo people don't want to hear about it.. Cancer and diabetes seem to be OK to have but Not a mental illness.I just plan on being here for him if he needs me again.. Hoping he will have a nice long life and overcome not just the mental problems that come from bipolar but the physical problems that the mind causes the body to have also..