I'm K. Nichole Wallace, I'm sixteen, and I live in Texas. I was just recently diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder by my psychiatrist, which was hard to swallow, but now I'm on my way to recovery.

My mental illnesses began around a little more than a year and a half to two years ago in 2006-2007. I was often depressed, I was cutting myself, and was very impulsive. I went through a period of me putting on a happy face and acting as if everything was ok, especially when I was in my first year of high school. The strange thing was when I entered high school, I would go several nights without sleeping, and when I did sleep, it was only for three hours tops. I was often shaky in classes from being nervous, I ate as much as a bird, and I was failing almost all of my classes. I was a popular girl, I couldn't let my reputation suffer. I had to have social status, or I would be worthless. Just as the school year was about to end, I got hurt by a guy, and told a therapist I was going to kill myself the next day. Little did I know that if I told her that, she could put me in a hospital. I went to a mental care facility for a total of 11 days, which was a very hard thing for me. I ended up getting back with the guy who hurt me because I still had feelings for him, and he began stalking me, and I went crazy again. I cut my wrist and overdosed on my psych meds. I went back into the mental hospital for 13 days once again. Then I went about four to six weeks of being ok and then my parents made me become very angry for reading my text messages I almost threw myself into a window. They then took me to another hospital, where I stayed for only three days, due to the ill treatment I received there. Throughout this whole thing I kept on being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features and ADHD. Now here I am six months or so later and I was finally diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder by my psychiatrist. I thank him for that, now I feel a bit of relief that I actually have a diagnosis I feel right about. Now is the time where I go forward, take my medication, and have fun in life.