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Old Sep 05, 2009, 10:28 AM
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thinker22 thinker22 is offline
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Member Since: Jun 2009
Location: Pac NW
Posts: 2,113
I've had irritability, impulsive behavior, including spending sprees on travel and clothes, and depression at the same time. It is mixed as Ama said. It's still considered a part of mania and counts for the dx of Bipolar I.

My current manic episode has elation and joke telling, which it was more like in my childhood. But it was this way in NYC too when I was drinking too much almost every night.

Anyway I'm Bipolar I, but I was depressed for so long that the psych nurse thought I was Bipolar II since I was depressed all the time she'd seen me. My therapist knew better from the episodes I'd described, but it took a psych doc to get it right finally. I'd go back in time and plot your childhood and adolescence and see if there was any period, even a week or a day where you felt silly, energetic, full of life, and couldn't sit still, but all the rest of the time you seemed to be depressed and listless. This was the experience of my childhood and it only grew worse with time. Higher highs and lower lows.

I guess you could say people thought I was 2 or 3 different persons when I was in school because I adapted according to each environment in my classes. In one, I was the class clown, in another, I was shy and withdrawn, in another I was a smart know it all, etc. And then after school I was a jock playing sports and any one of the moods could show up, usually silly or depressed/angry though.

So, it's possible to have many of your symptoms and just be bipolar I not DID. Of course, I may have had DID in childhood. Who knows?

That's what I have experienced anyway.
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Last edited by thinker22; Sep 05, 2009 at 10:30 AM. Reason: typo
Thanks for this!
ADHD1956, kris9999