If you really need to know, check yourself in for a few weeks sans meds and have them evaluate you. I'd have to second another member and ask you why don't you ask your doc this question.
Sounds to me like you are an ultra rapid cycler. NOS sounds like it may fit here, but hey, who's the doc. You may also have Schizo-affective disorder. That's a hard dx to make too. You'd need to check in for that. I did many years ago for 3 months and they told me that's what I had.
Who the hell knows. I don't think they really do either. We're all just a bunch of of nuts stuck with whatever label they feel like giving us.
in my modest view, names are not important whether 1 or 2. Because simply the meds are the same. If you read the literature there are some 6 types of BP (search under akiskal). Some have mania only and some depression only, also some are atypical cases (NOS) besides they say that BP2 can change into 1.
So i wouldn't bother whether you have 2 or 1. incidentally 2 is not better than 1 even though 1 induces psychosis. I have always wondered to which one i belong but i stopped thinking about this quite a long time ago. Pdocs like to label their pts
rBoulet
If you have ever been hospitalized for symptoms of mania it is type 1 even if it doesn't last the full seven days. What you describe sounds more like type 1 because type 2 doesn't usually have a break from reality (curled up eating crackers)
As well people with type 2 can have rapid cycling. In the new DSM they have included that as part of the diagnosis.
Finsright
There is a thing called irritable hypomania. It sounds a lot like what you describe. I usually get those types of mania although I have had the other kind and thankfully found a decent guy who could keep up with me in the bedroom! And after that bout of hypomania was done I found myself a class A guy, much better than sex without emotion.
But grief can also cause a whole host of emotions so if you've been diagnosed only after you lost your husband I'd be questioning it a bit. It never hurts to get a second opinion if you can afford it. I'd do some of the mood tracking and see what your patterns are - if there are any.
Are you taking any medicine for your depression?
From what I understand mania can also instead be what you described with agitation and whatnot.
I've been confused for ten years. I was diagnosed with Bi-Polar, But from everything I read I doesnt fit. I am a rapid cycler only instead of a week mine often last only a day. I'm depressed the rest of the time. Also my manic times don't really fot. I don't do any of the syptems of manic. I never go on wild spending sprees I'm never super happy or intrested on sex. My manic is a feeling like my skin is crawling. Poeple talking and expecting me to understand frustrates me. I pick at things, critize people and pick fights saying horrible things I would never say and the kind of things people don't ever completely foget. Way more often I'm depressed, not getting out of bed and periods where it's just too much. My husband of 34yrs died 5 years ago and when it's reaaly bad all I can think is death would get stop all this pain and I could be with him. So were does that leave? limbo I guess
If you call the free clinic you can get your medical records and there should be a bipolar diagnosis listed.
They only change a diagnosis if they realize later you fit another diagnosis better, meds have no influence on this. I wouldn't worry about what diagnosis you have as long as the treatment you're getting is working.
If your episodes have changed due to your medications then your diagnosis doesn't change. Bipolar is chronic, so once you have what you have, that's what you have. It's like people who have type 1 diabetes can have normal healthy blood glucose levels with proper insulin, diet, and exercise, but they will always have type 1 diabetes. If the medicine goes away, then things go back to the way they were before. I believe it's called remission for people with bipolar if you get better and stay better on your meds.
I can't ask mine because she's not really mine. Long story short I see one at a free clinic and can't contact her outside of appointments. Just that, my episodes were long enough to meet what the DSM says before taking medication. I'm just wondering if now that my episodes are short because of my medication if my diagnosis changes. I'm not sure if my episodes would go back to the old lengths if I stopped taking it. If it didn't would my diagnosis change?
Of course the disorder is complicated. There is still much to learn. However, according to the DSM IV, it is pretty clear that 7 days is the cut-off. If your fiancee says they last more than a week, even if rarely, your manic symptoms bump you to bipolar disorder I. But, hey, we're not pdocs. Why aren't you asking yours? I know mine uses the DSM as a guideline and would not arbitrarily let one day of symptoms make all the difference. If you were consistently only truly manic (beyond hypomanic) 6 days a week, he'd still consider you BPI, not BPII.
I agree that it is more complicated than it seems, which is why I'm always confused about where I am and where I belong in all of this. It just makes me feel that since i don't perfectly fit in the category of bipolar 1 or 2 that I don't fit anywhere at all and that I'll never get the right help for very long. I feel like an awkward puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit into any spots.
Well, I think it's more complicated than we realize. I'm not a doctor but here are some things I've read because I've been curious about myself as well.
People with Bipolar 1 can have mixed states and rapid cycling. Rapid cycling is defined as 4 episodes in 1 year. There is also Ultra Rapid Cycling, which is more than 4 episodes in a year. Then there is another even faster form of cycling than that, but I can't remember the name.
Supposedly, people with Bipolar 2 can't have rapid cycling, from what I've read.
Mixed states: people with bipolar 1 have these. Supposedly people with bipolar 2 don't.
According to my psychologist, you may only have one episode of mania ever in your whole life and depressed otherwise to have bipolar.
But, I think these little boxes and lines they draw around us are not that clear. We're all different even though similar. Complicated. :(
By definition, bipolar II never reaches that level of mania, so that seems like I.