Adult ADD or Bipolar

[sue7163]

I Finley convinced my son to go to a mental hospital today. He finley amited taht he has a problem. He did not have to stay because he was not at harm to his self or anyone. However, the doctor feels he could be Bipolar or adult ADD He will have to follow up with a out patient service next week. I'm worried I will not be abe to get him to this follow up.  
What is the different from Adult ADD and Bipolar.
he is: Out of control lie and stealing (aggressive behavior) from his family and friends, the ones that love him.  Will not work or look for work in 4 years, will not sleep or sleep all day, mood up one min and down the other. no Guilt on what  he has done. Will not shower. He is doing more Drug abuse (weed)
Is this the symptom of Bipolar ?
Will Out patient help ?
What can his family do? he has no medical Ins. Who will help with no Med Ins.

[Sonyadeanne]

I'm not sure if you still visit here but I wanted to comment on your description of your sons behavior and symptoms. I have a son who  is 24 years old and exhibits the same symptoms and has since puberty. He chooses to self medicate with marijuana. I resent the comments from Monkey as they lack an educated opinion and empathy. After power struggling with my son for years I realized my only job is to love my son and respect his choices however looked down by society they are. I take care of myself and my mental health and hope I can be a role model for him when and if he chooses to get help! It's been 3 years since you posted. Hope this helps you or anyone reading.

[monkeyc]

Drug abuse and use can present some Bipolar like symptoms - Meta amphetamine can present manic and psychotic symptoms very easily and in bipolars it can lead to complete psychotic mania.

The reality is most of this behaviour does not on the face of it sound bipolar - it does sound like a personality disorder or sociopathic personality.  Marijuana use long term can cause mental illness and latent mental illnesses such as schzophrenia to come out - its a dangerous drug despite the efforts of many to promote it as a toy.

Bipolar itself does not cause people to behave like this, sorry but mood swings are not the only facet of bipolar disease and the refusal to work and stealing is not something that you can blame on any disease.

Ultimately there needs to be a clear willingness on the part of the patient to seek help and follow treatment and frankly if he is using drugs he will not get far in any treatment plan - basically he will have to stop drugs and take responsobility for himself and sadly based on what you have written I doubt that's going to happen easily.

As for differences between bipolar and adult ADD - google has information, personally I believe adult ADD to be up their with childhood *** as about most over diagnosed thing around and do not remotely believe its as prevalent as people say - I have met plenty of adults who claim to be ADD and not one of them truly fits the symptoms and the behaviours but hey they get ritalin and it works so they must be ADD right?  * Ritalin works on non ADD and ADD people in most cases...

[LetaB]

  He sounds far more like a sociopath than a simple BP or ADHD case and as the mother of kids diagnosed with all three of these conditions I should know.