la la la ~I am new~

Hey everyone! My name is April and I am new to this support site and to this group. Among other things, I am diagnosed as bipolar. I am looking forward to meeting new friends, and offering advice and support to others. I also hope that this will become a strong support group for me. Please check out my profile for more information about me and send me a note if you have any questions.

Bye!
April :-)

[tanlee27]

Welcome to the forum.  I was just recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder and this site has really helped a lot for me.  I hope it helps you too.

[Fizzy74]

Hi there, i am new too, and looking for support.  I was diagnosed about 18 months ago but never really told what Bipolar was all about.  So trying to find out others experiences etc, and see if what I go through is okay so to speak.  

Welcome and hopefully I can give you support that you need too.

[ApRiLGeTsAngry77]

Thank you for the welcomes. I was misdiagnosed as major depressive for 10 years. I finally was diagnosed with bipolar about 4 years ago. It has been a long road trying to find the right med combination. I have been mostly stable now for long time.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Welcome to these forums, they are more like a community and you'll probably find the support you are looking for here.  I thought I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder but a general practitioner did this, which they are not qualified to do, and later was diagnosed properly with an entirely different but somehow still related disorder so thus I share some symptoms with you guys and I like to help where I can on here as well, anyway.  Nearly all my family on one side have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder anyhow.  Other family members have told me they were diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia.  Another possibly has the latter.  Bipolar disorder can be easily mistaken for major depressive disorder, even for ten years, due to the nature of them both.  It is good to hear you have the proper medication combination, this is a real undertaking to get.

[ApRiLGeTsAngry77]

I agree that the proper medication is a real undertaking but symptoms can change which means I sometimes need a med adjustment. In addition to bipolar, I am also diagnosed with other disorders. So therefore my pdoc treats my symptoms and not the disorder. Thanks for the welcome!

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Yes it is better to treat the symptoms rather than the diagnosis since not every medication works for everyone and everyone had different symptoms.  They are actually changing the DSM to start putting more emphasis on diagnosing symptoms rather than disorders which I think is a great improvement because like they said with schizophrenia in the article, a person with it may experience anxiety and insomnia because of it, but these are not required for the diagnosis which makes diagnosing a disorder rather than symptoms seem like an obsolete way of thinking.

[ApRiLGeTsAngry77]

Yes, the new drafted version is available online. They have 7 different diagnosis in the new DSM-V. They are thinking about removing a current bipolar diagnosis and adding a new one.

I was browsing through the drafted version and I found that I could fit myself into a lot of diagnosis. Tough Stuff!