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Am I Bipolar?
I have been dealing with psychiatric problems for at least 13 years and I am sick of it, and I am only 23. I know that putting a name on something isn't as important as dealing with it properly, but how can I deal with something or know that I'm getting exactly the right treatment if I don't know what is actually wrong with me? For a long time, it was thought that I had Depression and some anxiety. ADD was also a consideration, so I have taken medications for all of those things. Then, when I was 16, I was hospitalized and I do beleive that's when mood stabilizers were first given to me. I was actually on two different anti-psychotics (at seperate times) before the hospitalization as well (Risperdal and Seroquel). I have had at some point over the years the following symtoms: being depressed and tired, being anxious, having trouble concentrating, being cranky, I have considered suicide (not recently), I have had paranoia (I thought people were listening to my thoughts and such), I tried to be anorexic at one point (yes, on purpose, visited those websites), now I can't control overeating, I spend money to try to be happy, very rarely I go without sleep but that is sometimes also when I have had some caffine pills, I have felt extremely dependant on others (to a fault), and have self-injured since age 14 (was doing well for awhile, more recently have started again). More disturbing symptoms at time of hospitilization were: eating a staple and a paperclip (not trying to harm myself, just impulsively did so), forgot how to drive a car, pinned a friend up against a fence with a rake because of things I thought she was doing, put pieces of broken glass in my mouth that I found in the street and spit them at another friend, chewing on peice of a wooden fence I found in the yard, and talking to and hugging a tree. More recently, I have I had some strange impulses at times, like wanting to knock a glass of water off of the table in a resturant for no good reason. I self injured yesterday and I am just really wondering what is wrong with me. I know that Bipolar has been considered, but I don't know if it's been diagnosed. I have no idea if that mishmosh of things that I just listed make any sense to anyone, but if it does, maybe I'll feel less of such a mess.
Did you NP up your dosages at all? is it helping? One thing I've just learned is to write down a list of concerns, my memory isn't always as good, and I want to make sure that my issues are addressed. I crashed into a serious depression last wednesday but by friday I was feeling better, but I'm glad I wrote down what I was going through. My pdoc upped my Lithium and Lamactil. I was binging majorly when I crashed so I knew it was getting really bad. Since my dosages have been up, my binging has stopped. seriously stopped. I'm shocked. Once you can stop self-injuring you will feel even more power then you do when you are. It's been almost a rush knowing that I can say NO! I had ONE piece of chocolate and stopped. THUD. You can do it, if the meds aren't helping with your self injuring, ask for something else, you need to be in control NOT the darned dis-ease.
Glad to hear from you again, keep up your good work!
Glad to hear from you again, keep up your good work!
So I saw my Psychiatric Nurse Practicioner on Friday and chickened out on asking her what my diagnoses is. She didn't seem particularly concerned over the self injury, I'm little confused as to why not. She said she wants to see me stable on my meds so we can keep track of my moods. I'm on Abilify 15mg, Prozac 20mg, and Concerta 27mg, all 1x per day. I had lost my bottle of Abilify, so maybe that's why she didn't make any changes even though I did self injure. Oh, an LeftCoastChick, that tip about 10 seconds seems like a good idea, I will have to try that next time I feel impulsive.
Are we related? I've been up and down since I was 7, though I've never done cutting or anything like that, I'm bulemic in remission, though I still sometimes binge (passive self-harm).
You need to get a steady shrink, and stick with it. You can feel better, but you need to stay on meds. It's the illness making you impulsive and mood swings. I still get urges to do innappropriate things that are naughty like throwing something or confronting someone for slightly annoying me. I've learned to have a "filter", I call it the 10 second rule where I actually think of the consequences, it helps with most of my impulsive behaviours. Just thought that might help. Jouurnalling can help, though I have the attention span of a gnat, so the tracker really helps me and my pdoc.
I hope things smooth out, LCC
You need to get a steady shrink, and stick with it. You can feel better, but you need to stay on meds. It's the illness making you impulsive and mood swings. I still get urges to do innappropriate things that are naughty like throwing something or confronting someone for slightly annoying me. I've learned to have a "filter", I call it the 10 second rule where I actually think of the consequences, it helps with most of my impulsive behaviours. Just thought that might help. Jouurnalling can help, though I have the attention span of a gnat, so the tracker really helps me and my pdoc.
I hope things smooth out, LCC
Oh yes, I forgot that! Its 11.30pm so still Thursday for me for another half-an-hour. I should be in bed - oops!
Hi and welcome to the site.
Are you currently seeing a psychiatrist? If you are and you are not happy with your current diagnosis/medications etc then I would suggest getting a second opinion.
None of us on here can give you a diagnosis as you probably know, a lot of the symptoms you describe can be present in various mental illnesses and without proper training I personally wouldn't like to say one way or the other.
For self-education I would suggest having a look at some of the great websites available which discuss Bipolar. I shall not list them all in this message (they will be on the site permanently within the next few days). But one to start with is http://mcmanweb.com/
Also make an appointment with your psychiatrist (or find a psychiatrist if you haven't already got one) to discuss this.
Are you currently seeing a psychiatrist? If you are and you are not happy with your current diagnosis/medications etc then I would suggest getting a second opinion.
None of us on here can give you a diagnosis as you probably know, a lot of the symptoms you describe can be present in various mental illnesses and without proper training I personally wouldn't like to say one way or the other.
For self-education I would suggest having a look at some of the great websites available which discuss Bipolar. I shall not list them all in this message (they will be on the site permanently within the next few days). But one to start with is http://mcmanweb.com/
Also make an appointment with your psychiatrist (or find a psychiatrist if you haven't already got one) to discuss this.
Ok. Welcome to the forum, glad to meet you.
The first question I always ask like broken record is the big one.
Do you have a psychiatrist currently?
What does the psychiatrist say?
Are you currently taking medication for bipolar?
The thing is some of your behaviours might be bipolar and some of them might be schizophrenia and some of them might be other things - there is no real bipolar type symptomatic behavioiur in your description but thats not neccesarily saying its not there.
Why do you think you might be bipolar?
What you have to realise is that being depressed and tired, being anxious, having concentration problems, being cranky and even having suicidal thoughts are also things perfectly sane people have - they are not really symptoms in themselves unless other behaviours are present.
Self harm is not always a BP symptom and is fairly rare based on what I have read.
The first question I always ask like broken record is the big one.
Do you have a psychiatrist currently?
What does the psychiatrist say?
Are you currently taking medication for bipolar?
The thing is some of your behaviours might be bipolar and some of them might be schizophrenia and some of them might be other things - there is no real bipolar type symptomatic behavioiur in your description but thats not neccesarily saying its not there.
Why do you think you might be bipolar?
What you have to realise is that being depressed and tired, being anxious, having concentration problems, being cranky and even having suicidal thoughts are also things perfectly sane people have - they are not really symptoms in themselves unless other behaviours are present.
Self harm is not always a BP symptom and is fairly rare based on what I have read.
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