How Did Your Doctor Arrive at Your Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder?

I went too see about recurring fits of rage I had every Thanksgiving. He suspected bipolar disorder. I had thought abut this before but now in relation to the Thanksgiving rage. It had been going on for about six years and was too obvious not to consider bipolar cycling.

My doctor had the foresight to refer me to an excellent, experienced doctor in Salt Lake City who did not say it was bipolar but was going to treat me as if it were and see what happened. That was nearly twenty years ago.

After my 1st suicide attempt at age 15 the diagnosis was depression. In my early twenties I sought help for bouts of persistent, intrusive, violent & sexual thoughts and was diagnosed with an OCD type disorder and was given an SSRI. Only made the symptoms of the thoughts worse – WHEN they were occurring, they came in bouts. When I was about 27 yrs old I went to my family dr and said, “Something isn’t right. I can’t sit still, my thoughts are going a mile a minute, and I can’t sleep.” I was diagnosed with BP II initially because I had been holding a job up to this point and had no psychotic or mixed symptoms. That diagnosis didn’t last long. I immediately went into a mixed state after a long manic state. My diagnosis of BP I was solidified when I had delusional memories during a manic episode and more mixed states.

My mother was an alcoholic, and the entire family fought all the time, probably due to her drinking. My mom died three weeks before my first wedding from Cirrhosis and it devastated me. At the same time, I changed jobs, bought a new house and got married. Those are a lot of stressors! When I was first hospitalized, I was given the dx of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which turned into Major Depression with OCD, then in 1994, I was finally dx’d with Bipolar II, as I had a lot of rage, in place of mania. Things have settled down, finally and I’m able to lead a more stable life, than ever before, thanks to great doctors and therapists.

I had been diagnosed as being depressed with panic disorder for years. The fact that when taking anti-depressants I did scary things didn’t seem to interest my psychiatrist. I insisted upon a new diagnosis 25 years later, explaining why I was sure I needed the new diagnosis. I took the long MMPI and talked for quite a while with someone who was clearly an experienced psychologist. At the end of it all, the psychologist said – You think you are bipolar, don’t you? I replied yes and he agreed with me. The psychiatrist I saw for over twenty-five years still doesn’t think I am bipolar. I do have moments of bitterness for the years I lost.

When I was about 5 or 6 years old I would have hallucinations, so my parents moved thinking it was the house,then when I was about 16 years of age,I was socially withdrawn, had attempted suicide several times, and would have fits of rage in which I hurt others,and still had hallucinations. In 1986 I had lost an uncle who I was very close to, he was like a best friend, he died an untimely death and I was in shock for a year. My parents then had me see a psychiatrist and he had diagnosed me with Manic Depression and put me on amitryptaline,in which I had a very bad reaction to, almost killed my dad and then ended up in the hospital, so I quit the meds and never thought any more of it, just dealt with things the best I could. Then in my adult years I had fits of rage again, suicide attempts, which led to hospitalization, and back to seeing the psychiatrists and psychologists and they also diagnosed me first with borderline personality disorder, but then changed it to bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorder because of the symptoms I had been displaying over the years and now I am finally getting the help I needed long ago.

I spent years as a teen being told I was hystrionic,then as an adult it was post traumatic stress, then major depression, then BP with schizoaffective and finally Bipolar 1 with psychotic tendencies…The last 2 shrinky dinks agree on this.I agree but also feel there’s a touch of something else too.I just know there is something going on that isn’t good right now .

I hope it is ok for me to say what I am about to say. I have depression since very early on, about 5yrs old I think. As I grew my depression got worse and at the age of about 12 I used self harm. From then onwards I drank a lot, I took many overdoses and my moods could go from being so happy and in charge of everything to becoming extremely low where I just could not snap out of this black feeling of despair and desperation. From about the age of 24yrs up until 29yrs my life became a little more stable and I in that time had 4 children. When my last one was born I split with the childrens father and in 4 months I fell in love with a lovely man. The next 10yrs I never stopped, I had 4-5 jobs, I built an extension onto my house, changed the whole of the inside of my house, I felt so much in charge but I still felt as though I didn’t know who I was. ^yrs into that relationship things started to go wrong again. I became extremely depressed and started to drink again. I had another baby so the drinking stopped. I went back to work but was very tired so only kept 1 job. I noticed a change in my partner, he went from being emotionally abusive to a scary emotionally draining person and so he had to go. Our little boy was nearly 2 and had become very difficult to manage. Over the next few yrs, I discovered that this partner had left behind 20,000 of debt, disowned his son, who by the age of 6yr was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD. I put up with my depression now because I had to think of my poor son now who was having major problems but over the next few yrs I became so depressed I had a nervous breakdown. It was at this time I was verbally diagnosed with bipolar. The Dr’s tried a cocktail of tablets and at 1 point was on 1,000mg of depokote per day plus seroxate and another antidepressant until one day I woke in the hospital having suffered a seizure. 5yrs on. I am yet another different antidepressant plus seroxate yet all my help was withdrawn and my diagnosis then became a mystery, as in, nobody could find out who had diagnosed me as there was nothing in writing. I find this so hard to believe, these people have lied and fobbed me off, I need a second opinion, can somebody please tell me how to go about thi please.
Sorry so long but thank u for taking the time to read this.

I have major family problems. my mother 4brothers my former’ex’sister all believe lies posted on me this christmas eve. My mother physically attacked me in front of my 10 yr old.they evidentally accepted some outragous lies about me and 100% took her side no one will call or talk to us.Not even for my 50 yr birthday in Januaryetcetc….they have reunions and not invite us Not the first time this has happened on xmas eve.being bipolar myseld doesnt help the pain we both suffer from being disowned I really need to talk to someone other than my doctors

i just sent one there’s alot more major incidences that makes me wonder how a close family such as ours “was” could reject us in the cruel way that they do and have done in the past My mother has 6 kids but she can only have 5 at a time Hope that makes sense to someone

When I was diagnosed in 1988, I was diagnosed as having schizo-affective disorder. I am now diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. I was first diagnosed as having mixed states and now I have ultra rapid cycling. I will go from high to low in a matter of hours. It is a very hard thing to go through when you are not on meds. I get so warn down and tired of going from mood to mood. I can’t sleep without seroquil, I just stay up all night listening to music and writing or just play on the computer.
I had my first hospilization in ‘88 and then had about three to four more with one suicide attempt. I rage and the anger, the highs.
I was so high one day that I chased a baby ducking at the lake just to try to get him back to his mom. Boy that one was a humdinger. That one could have been on “funny Home Videos”. I have done and said things that I have regretted and somethimes still do.

I want to make another comment. I just read some of the entries. My mom,daughter and I got ex-communicated from our family too April of 2006. We now pretty much have just eachother and my brothers and grandchildren. We no longer talk to our other family members.
The only way I can think of to find out if you have bipolar disorder is to go to different drs. or even to a therapist and see if they can help you.