Posted by barbaracat on June 12, 2005, at 21:58:39
In reply to Re: bipolar sleep problems » PM80, posted by yesac on June 8, 2005, at 13:28:17
Your symptoms sure sound like bipolar to me. I went through 25 years resisting the label because of the standard descriptors of 'manic' we all think we're familiar with. One does not have to to manic in the classic sense. Irritability, agitation and severe anxiety can work just fine as the 'manic' phase, and depression should be in there somewhere as well.
The real proof in the pudding is how you feel on the varioius meds. You don't do well on ADs but feel better on mood stabilizers? Well, that's something to consider very strongly and as diagnostic as anyone can hope for.
In retrospect, after I'd become stabilized on lithium and overcame my horror of the stigma of being 'really crazy' instead of just depressed, I started allowing myself to recognize full-blown episodes of manic symptoms throughout my life and started recognizing them in both my parents as well.
Racing and pressured thoughts, and feelng hyper and activated combined with suicidal ideation is as classic as you can get for bipolar and sounds like a simple measure of degree. Maybe you don't get flamingly psychotically manic, but it sure sounds close enough for jazz and should be treated accordingly.
> I know that I'm definitely not bipolar I or bipolar II even... but perhaps more bipolar NOS/spectrum kind of thing, if you know about that. Yes I have a psychiatrist and I've been in therapy for a long time. He agrees that I have some bipolar symptoms, but hasn't actually diagnosed me as such, probably because I don't have clear episodes of mania. I just tend to get very agitated and irritable, have suicidal and homicidal thoughts, talk fast and have racing thoughts sometimes, feel hyper or activated, and of course the sleep problems I mentioned.
>
> These things have gotten worse in the last few years. Also, antidepressants don't seem to help me, but mood stabilizers do--- not that that's diagnostic, but it's an interesting problem to me.
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> Anyways, I don't know. In some ways it really doesn't matter, except for my own peace of mind. I just hate the ambiguity of diagnoses.
poster:barbaracat
thread:509410
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050611/msgs/511799.html