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Hi everyone,
We talk here and there about how to distinguish between different kinds of bipolar episodes, but how do you distinguish between bipolar episodes and non-bipolar moods? How do you personally figure this out?
I would think that all of us have things that happen in life sometimes that trigger deep sadness, intense anger, terrible anxiety, etc. How do you know that a given person or situation is triggering this or that, on the other hand, you are in the midst of an episode?
If we have an over-the-top/intense reaction to, for example, a significant other hurting us, or someone being incredibly annoying, or a lot of stress piling up (at work, home), is this the distinction, does this mean bipolar?
Or can we 'overreact' (or react very intensely) to things in our lives without it being bipolar?
Do we attribute nice, calm, even, mature, reactions to life events to our baseline, and over the top, raging, crying fits to bipolar? Is this a valid distinction?
I'm thinking of another thread where it was brought up how we attribute things based on whether we consider them positive or negative and the possibility that we over-attribute negative behavior, or things we generally don't like about ourselves, to bipolar (and consequently things we do like about ourselves to our baseline, to who we are)?
Personally, I think with a diagnosis like Bipolar Disorder, the temptation to do this -though maybe often on an unconscious level- can be very strong (unlike some other diagnoses). I'm not referring here to taking responsibility for one's behavior, I'm referring to (whether we take responsibility or not) the attribution of the negative to 'bipolar', and how this could potentially blind us from seeing the possibility that we've been triggered and overreacted (or reacted very strongly) just...because.
What do you guys think -and how do you make these distinctions?
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