Diagnosed with ADHD ? Councillor thinks it's bipolar

[Beng1188]

I've been involved with community mental health team and was diagnosed with ADHD with lead on to counciling for 2 months (still going) and my councillor thinks I've been misdiagnosed with ADHD and she truly believes I have manic depression could this be true should I mention this to my community mental health team and how ? I don't want to sound rude as if I told them there done there job wrong I no longer see my community mental health team but when I was seeing them I found it hard to be open with them because I was called a freak,wierd,phyco found it hard to be open with them and I kept stuff behind because I was scared but I found my councillor very welcoming and I felt I could be open with her what should I do with my cmht? Or say?

[Beng1188]

Thankyou for the help I appreciate it

[Sandman2]

   Just recommended this to another poster.  If you are on stim meds and  have most of your problems in the afternoon as the meds are wearing off - this could be very helpful to you.    The link is:
               http://www.corepsych.com/2014/02/adhd-medications-fix-pm-drop-4-mad-drop/

[Sandman2]

   Oh, I forgot they always block the psych central links.  Just put that in before the ******* on the last reference.

[Sandman2]

   Well, it really is important to figure out whats going on.  It is very common for people with ADHD to have depression and to be angry for that matter.  There are clear differences between bipolar and depression or adhd anger.  The following is for children, but it is also true for adults.
          "One diagnostic fallacy is to assume that these children have bipolar disorder. Dr. Dimitri and Ms. Janice Papolos recently devoted a full book to the disorder (The Bipolar Child, 1999). The rages of children with bipolar disorder are more intense and lengthy than for the children we are currently discussing. The Papoloses describe (page 13) that for children with bipolar, these angers can go on for several hours and occur several times a day. In children with bipolar, there is often physical destruction or harm to something or someone. In children with anger overload, the outburst is often brief, less than half an hour, and while there may be physical acting out, usually no one is hurt. In addition, children with bipolar have other symptoms such as periods of mania, grandiosity,
intense silliness or hypersexuality.
      Anger overload is also different from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Children with AD/HD have significant distractibility, which occurs regularly in school and/or the home. By contrast, children with brief outbursts of anger often pay attention well when they are not"overheated" emotionally. In addition, children with AD/HD may have hyperactive movements throughout the day; whereas children with anger overload only seem hyperactive when they are overstimulated with feelings of anger.
Finally, children with AD/HD are often impulsive in a variety of situations, many of which have nothing to do with anger"   From http://www.chadd.org/Portals/0/AM/Images/Understading/AUG01AngerOverloadinChildren-DiagnosticandTreatmentIssues.pdf
    This is also a very good link explaining the differences - http://************.com/lib/whats-the-difference-between-depression-and-manic-depression/0002546
   Point being that to someone who doesn't understand what ADHD is and what it can do to someone - it certainly could appear to be bipolar.  However, it really is important to know the differences because the treatments are different.  Hopefully, the information I have given above will be helpful in helping you figure this out.  It may well be that you just really need to deal with the anger that can be involved with ADHD, or the depression that frequently accompanies ADHD.  Knowing what ya got makes it a lot easier to deal with it.  Let me know if you need more info.
Best wishes.