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cashart10 · Oct 22, 2013, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ultramar

My old pdoc said that whether you are BP or BP and GAD, etc is determined by whether or not the other symptoms subside after your BP episode is finished (I hope I said that clearly enough).

Thanks for this, I had never thought of it this way. As I've said before, one way in which I personally conceptualize bipolar is that, between episodes, you are just 'you' (your 'normal,' your 'baseline'), if that makes sense. In other words, you're not bipolar between bipolar episodes, you are who you are (with all of your psychological issues, personality characteristics, quirks, etc.).

In this context, what you say above makes a lot of sense to me. So if you suffer from a great deal of anxiety between episodes, then it's likely you suffer from a co-morbid (or separate) anxiety disorder -do you think this is what your pdoc was saying?

About psychosis, since you're diagnosed BP I and psychosis can be a component of this, maybe it's encompassed within the bipolar diagnosis? As someone said, there is a psychotic disorder nos, but if it occurs during your episodes, I would think it would be the BP? What does your pdoc say?

Yes, that is exactly what he meant and I thought it explained a lot also. Thanks for the info too. I haven't asked my pdoc about it. I am bad about just letting her take the reigns (she's good at it) and not asking a lot of questions. I do it with most doctors actually, trying to ask more though.