I was diagnosed with bipolar at 32 and feel robbed of my twenties

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy I was 32 by the time I was diagnosed with bipolar II – a disorder generally categorised by mood states so extreme that they are detrimental to a person’s quality of life. It seemed like every Doctor I saw, after things got really bad, would hesitate to put a label on anything and decide that the best recourse was to throw different treatments at the wall to see what stuck. Bipolar tries its hardest to trick me into believing that oscillating between intense emotion and numbing greyness is the only way I am able to exist, but won’t hesitate to hiss reminders in my ear that the alternative, but equally permanent option is always there.