Does bipolar become more manageable with age?

Studies have shown that Bipolar mania can lessen with age, but, the depressive episodes will get longer and worse. With proper treatment and proactive measures, I'm sure that it can become more manageable right now, and that way you can learn how to better deal with it in the future.

I'm not sure if 'it' becomes more manageable as we age or if as we age we just get better at managing it (if that makes sense). What I mean is over time we often get better at coping and overcoming things. So I think so yes.

When we are younger we don't always make the right choices. The choices we make affect our lives and especially our mental health. A lot of us mature with age and make healthier choices that are better for our mental health. In that respect, things do get better with age. You may still have manic or depressive episodes but you learn how to cope with it and the episodes may become less severe and more manageable. The duration of the episodes may also lessen because you have the coping skills. When we are younger we react more than we self reflect. When we are older we are more likely to think before we react, thus affecting the choices we make. Life seems to be a series of moments and choices. Healthy choices make our moments better.

Bipolar becomes more manageable with practice. Just like many other illnesses, time doesn't inherently make things better or worse. Performing little right actions over time makes things better, and committing little errors in judgment over time makes things much worse. So to answer your question, it is not time that will change how manageable your bipolar will be, but the things you do in that time. If you continue to take steps in the right direction, like asking good questions and being here, then yes, it will get better with time. I hope that helps

Yes, my twenties and early thirties...my bipolar was in full swing. I was in and out of the hospital. I am going on 40 and I feel like I mellowed out significantly. I have been able to hold down a job for 6 years and I am finishing my educational goals. I believe it is all about the right meds and self-regulation.

As someone who was diagnosed with bipolar 1 in my early thirty's and on lithium for over 30 years, under a psychiatrist's help, no therapy, just the lithium. I had an "episode" at the age of 34 after many, many months of conflicted emotions and stress, (they say that such stress can indeed trigger bipolar) (especially if it runs in families). I was delusional and hospitalized, put on lithium and stabilized. After 1 month, I thought, I had been misdiagnosed and weened off the lithium within 11 months, I had another delusional episode and was put back on lithium, stabilized and never had another episode. By the time I reached my 60's, I was much better at controlling my stressors and my psychiatrist reduced my lithium down to 1 300mg a day. My blood level was .4 (1/10 below therapeutic value). Finally, as lithium will sometimes do, my kidneys were affected. I now have CKD, but the lithium, even with the CKD was a godsend to me. However, my psychiatrist and I agreed that I was functioning already without medicaton and that I may indeed be one of the "lucky ones" where age has helped to eliminate or at least have controllable bipolar. I am no longer on medication, it has been 2 years, and I have no symptoms. So yes, in my opinion it can be more manageable with age. (Although I think like most of us at some point) I have wondered if I was actually correctly diagnosed with bipolar as there is no physical test to diagnose it, and perhaps I did indeed just experience a "mental" collapse due to the stress I was under at the time.

Yes and no. As you age, you're more aware of when you're about to snap or be too overwhelmed. On the other hand, it's part of who you are and it will always be there, all you can do is learn to accept and harness it. As a person- and a human being- there will be moments in which you will feel lost and you will never be found, but all you need is someone there to help you and be there for you. All you need to do is fully confide in someone trustworthy and let them into your heart.