Or, the Black Years (incomplete)
This is a continuation of my High School document. Although I had started getting signs of being bipolar around ages15/16 while in high school, the effect on my daily life wasn't dramatic. I did change somewhat and stuff did get harder (see post on 18 Apr 11), but life went on.
However, university was disaster for me. No - let me qualify that. In terms of experience and friendships, it was brilliant. In terms of studies and mood swings, it was a fiasco.
For me, the meltdown happened when I was 18/19 and at university - and it was bad. I won't go into the details here, but since you wanted to know about symptoms, and these could happen earlier than 18/19 - here is a list of the things I would do.
There were days I would not get out of bed. And so I missed classes.
I had a hell of a time studying. I couldn't study for more then 5-10 minutes without becoming distracted, and I could barely memorise anything. I failed quite a number of my classes.
I spent lots of time walking along the river at nights. For hours on end all by myself. Didn't want to see anyone - just had my Walkman on and blasted music.
I did do some cutting of my forearms with an Exacto knife (by the way if you / someone you know is doing this - get help immediately)
I did go through the "my life is worthless, why should I continue" and "it'll never get better than the horrible way I am feeling now" thoughts. A lot. The fact that I was also failing classes, etc. didn't help.
Basically, my entire life was a mess and I didn't know where things were going or how to even set the basics right.
By this time I also had most of the symptoms I listed on my Symptoms of Mania / Depression pages. But I didn't know it then - I only assembled the information years after.