Post by MarkeyHi,
I was wondering if anyone ever questioned their diagnosis?
Not really, not anymore.
1. Being on a mood stablizer as made a significant, noticable
difference, as seen by myself and others.
i think this is the ultimate definer, bottom line for whether or not
you are bipolar.
My diagnosis, BP2 has the following requirements/qualifiers.
1. A history of depression often imcluding one or more server
drepressive edisode.
No question about that, having m depression being a cuase for
concern by a 6th grade teacher, having been diagnosed and treated for
uni-polar depression since age 16.....the age whenI had a driver's
liscence and went in on my own to ask to pe seen for ongoing
psychiatric help.
2. A family history of manic depression.
It runs rampant in my mother's maternal line with about 1/3 of
that line having it....noticable from 60 paces and a dramatic
difference between members of that family line who have it and those
who don't.
High incidences of suicide in that line.
3. At least one episoode of hypomania.
Well, i didn't realize what mania was, and it was always clear
that I have never hit full mania or phychosis as some of the BP members
of my family have.
The hypomania espisodes had continuously misdiagnosed as "just
me when I wasn't depressed.
My hypomaia manifests in 2 ways that are clear to me:
Ridiculouslyu wild spending sprees and episodes of very high
irritability. Who knew.
the biggest stumbling block for me to accept is that "intense
periods of goal oriented behavior"....something that has a boon to me
personally and professionally was a bad thing and a symptom of
hypomania. i have great difficulty mourning the loss of that becuase
it was the one thing in my mental health life that didn't bother
me.....In fact, i considered it a giant plus....my salvation even.
and I miss it!
So...do i doubt my diagnosis? No, i don't have that luxury.
The challange now is finding the ability to be consistantly productive
in a less dramatic was than those spurts of high productivity for which
i was so famous.
The mood stablizer kills those, but it also almost eliminated the
freqenly occuring severe depressive episodes with high suicidal
ideation.
The tarade of is almost work it.
Good question out of many good questions you've raised, markey.
so glad you are here.
Maggie