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2010625 tn?1329372056

Strange symptoms....

I have been having rapid cycling/mixed episodes. During these episodes I have been having very strange symptoms. Including heightened senses, sensitive sensory perception, migraines, pain, my brain getting stuck on logic with little to no emotion, or the opposite pure emotion with little or no ability to form or speak logical thought. The sensitive sensory perception is strange it is like the opposite of psychosis in a sense if look at psychosis as loosing touch with reality, for me it was like being so acutely aware of reality, that reality becomes too overwhelming. Does anyone know what this might be? I am very confused about this, as this is not something that is usually associated with bipolar disorder......
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6700713 tn?1384056970
Actually, the symptoms you describe are quite familiar to me. They are usually present on the high end of hypomania/low end mania.

I know I'm behind the curve on this post, but just wanted you to know that the symptoms you relate are not uncommon, as some others have inferred.

Warmest regards,
jpisces27
Helpful - 0
2010625 tn?1329372056
So one day (last Thursday) I was in so much pain I couldn't even walk. I went to the ER. Every time I tried to walk the pain was so intense I would get extremely dizzy, light headed, and nauseous, and then I would cry in pain, and was all shaking, my blood pressure was 155/93 (my blood pressure is usually never this high, usually always right in the mid normal ranges). They gave me some pain med, and nausea med, and felt much better. I am still in pain, can't sleep right, and wake up as stiff as a board, especially my neck, can't hardly turn it at all in the morning. I am also still having memory, and concentration problems.

I did get some test done at the ER, and at my regular doctor, all were negative or within normal range. What I was tested for;
Lupus
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Hepatitis
CBC
Potassium levels
Calcium levels
Liver & Kidney & Thyroid function
Electrolytes
Diabetes
Lithium Toxicity (I just started taking this, and actually was sub-therapeutic, and just increased my lithium last night)
So now I know I don't have problems with any of those, but they still don't know what is wrong with me. Oh the joy, lol.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Also, regarding insurance coverage, I call the member's number on the insurance card, and I tell them my issue and tell them what I would like to do. I've worked with 3 different insurances since I was diagnosed, and I found them surprisngly helpful. When it's not an emergency or imminent danger, That is what I do. It saves me a headache from chasing bill payment and filing grievances.
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Avatar universal
Thanks for the clarification. All the psychiatrists I worked with and see as a client are board certified in both in my region. I did not knowvthis wasn't a standard.
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Avatar universal
While there are a few residency programs for combined psych/neuro, they are separate board exams and the vast majority of psychiatrists are not board certified in neuro.  Both psychiatrists and neurologists spend a lot of time during residency rotating through both so that they can (hopefully) tell the difference, but it doesn't usually lead to dual certification.

Amy, are you feeling any better?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Yikes! Sorry, I' got your post mixed with one statement from another person's post. Scratch the idea of reference. It doesn't apply here. I'm sticking with euphoria, which I experienced with my own rapid cycling, in my first comment. I was lucid and able to describe the intensity of my thoughts and perceptions as it happened to my inpatient therapist and hospital psychiatrist. It only last less than an hour before I cycled again. So it caa be part of bipolar disorder. Also, I just remembered the first time I was successful in breaking my ruminating thoughts, I discovered my thoughts and mind quivered and spasmed, and when I reported it to my psychiatrist, I specifically said, that I can understand why seizure medications are sometimes used to treat bipolar disorder because my thought process felt seizurelike. However, I knew I wasn't having any seizures, and I only knew the descriptive mind process people with seizures told me after they hadt them, They have a period oft disorientation or time loss. I didn't. Sorry. Sometimes I get intrigued by the way my bipolar mind acts, so I like to look deep at it since it's new frontier for me.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Also, just to let you know, one of the first symptoms to migraines or even cluster headaches can be visual distortions and visual vividness. The point is, someone has to look at the whole you to be able to figure out what is going on.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi Amy. It doesn't sound like psychosis. It does sound like ideas of reference. Usually, when I go through bipolar psychosis, I have no awareness to question it. It's usually afterward I'm done with the psychosis. It sounds more like euphoria, and now, I suspect extreme anxiety is playing also.It doesn't sound like a stroke or seizure to me. Self diagnosing oneself is not the way to go, because it's just running around in circles and there is only the knowledge base you have. Also, symptoms have to be viewed objectively and behaviorally without  emotional content. There are specific signs and symptoms to strokes and seizures by physical and neurological assessments. If it eases your mind, a psychiatrist is board examined and certified in psychiatry AND neurology. I had euphoria, which came with my hypomania, and I remembered how vivid and heightened my thoughts and sensory perception was. Extreme pain can be caused by many things like electrolyte imbalances or a side effect to drugs and even extreme anxiety. The only way you will get an objective answer is to have a clinician like an internist to do a good physical exam. You won't get a good answer with different people focusing on just sytoms you are reporting. Take heed of the story of the 6 blind men trying to figure out what an elephant was by just feeling a different part of the elephant. Good luck. I hope I was helpful.
Helpful - 0
2010625 tn?1329372056
Now I am in excessive extreme pain all over my whole body. So I went to the doctor, and they are running tests, and trying to figure out what is wrong with me......
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2010625 tn?1329372056
actually I wanted to see a neuropsychiatrist, but I don't know if my insurance will pay for one. So I might have to just see a psychiatrist, and neurologist separately.
Helpful - 0
2010625 tn?1329372056
Well I don't know if I would want to go to the ER. I don't think I am going to die or anything, and I don't like the ER anyways. They don't seem to help people all that much unless they are dying, lol.

I live with my boyfriend, and I have been telling the rest of my family about my strange symptoms, so they are all aware of what is going on with me.

And yes I want to go see a neurologist, because these psychiatrist don't seem to know what is going on. I just don't know I think I might need a referral from a GP to go to one though.

It does seem to only happen though in these rapid cycling/ mixed episodes, I don't know if the episode could trigger something like a seizure though.....
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
The ER is required to treat you whether you can pay or not, and that includes getting the studies done that they think they need to give necessary/lifesaving care.  They'll still throw a bill at you, but there's a lot of people who go to the ER who can't pay.  If you need care, go and worry about the bills later (and go over the bills with a fine toothed comb so that you can negotiate the outrageous nickle-and-diming they will do).

Do you have someone who lives with you who can check up on you?  I worry about your safety if these things are something serious and they're getting worse.  You might want to go ahead and make an appointment with a neurologist for as soon after you get your insurance as possible so you don't have to wait.
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2010625 tn?1329372056
I keep trying to tell the doctors, and so far they have not been much help. I think I will fire them all and get new ones when I get my insurance. But that is part of the problem too with no insurance I have no way to pay for all the tests they might want to do on me to help figure out what is going on.
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2010625 tn?1329372056
I kept feeling dizzy and nauseous too...and sometimes feel like my brain is in a fog.
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2010625 tn?1329372056
Yes I talked to my cousin she thought maybe I was having some mini seizures, as symptoms like these are more related to autism than bipolar.
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Avatar universal
These seem like non-bipolar things to me too.  Apart from stroke, odd migraine auras and seizures come to mind, so it's definitely worth getting it checked out.
Helpful - 0
1474625 tn?1371097079
This does sound very strange, and possibly worrisome.  How long has this been going on?  It sounds like your left and right brain are having trouble communicating during these times of pure logical thought with no emotion (left brain action), and pure emotion without being able to speak or think (right brain action).  I don't want to scare you, but these are all symptoms of a stroke.  I would go to an urgent care or hospital to have testing as soon as possible as you're right these are not symptoms of bi-polar disorder, and it's better to be safe than to wait it out.  Please keep me updated!
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