I'm no doctor or expert in this. There are several forms of dual-diagnosis disorders, but I'm thinking that bipolar is an umbrella illness that already covers depression.

It is worth seeing someone to see if you may have bipolar. I think, yes, you might have only experienced depression before, and maybe the manic side of bipolar is only becoming recognizable now. Or maybe you have always had bipolar symptoms, but when you were diagnosed your depression was so bad that the doctor could only see that aspect of it.

From what I understand (I am not bipolar) people rarely seek initial treatment during a manic phase, because during that they feel great, they feel indestructible, they feel as if all is right with the world. After bipolar is diagnosed, paople may seek treatment during a manic phase because they or people around them can recognize the symptoms and although it may feel "good" in some ways they recognize that it will lead to an unhealthy cycle.

I have several bipolar friends who very recently suffered from severe depressive episodes. One for many months with depression as severe as mine. They were reluctant to treat her with antidepressants because sometimes that can trigger a manic phase in bipolar people. However this went on so long and so deeply that eventually they treated it purely as depression (keeping a watchful eye, though, to make sure she returned to level and not a manic phase).

There are different kinds of bipolar, in one form the manic phases are only slightly elevated while the depressive phase can be severe. It may be easy to miss a bipolar diagnosis on this because the manic phases are more subtle and may be hard to notice, especially when the depression hits so hard and so obviously.

------------------------------------
--http://www.idexter.com