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Originally Posted by Autumn Skies
My new T and I have discussed my diagnoses, but he doesn't know me well enough yet to make definite conclusions. Plus he's psychodynamic and doesn't really use them for treatment.
I know I have emotional problems, but it's possible I also have Bipolar I. How do you know if you have both? Has your T recognized it, or did it come from seeing a PDoc? My insurance doesn't cover mental health, so my T and I have to figure this out.
I'm only asking about Bipolar I, not Bipolar II, because it's more definitive.
When T and I talked about this last, he also said that he finds that people diagnosed with Bipolar I usually have emotional triggers just the same (he's been practicing for over 30 years). That really surprised me, but he is even considered an expert on diagnosing; is known for his expertise in questionable or difficult to diagnose people. But he's not a PDoc, so he obviously can't prescribe. Last T was a PDoc, which was helpful for this sort of thing, but it also complicated things in my treatment.
Thanks for sharing any experiences you had with this issue.
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I don't have Bipolar, but my Pdoc works in a similar way to your T, from what you've written, in that he does work more from a point of view of treating symptoms rather than diagnostic labels. That being said he has diagnosed me with Depression with Psychotic features, and my treatment for that is different to the treatment I receive for my other issues, which are more emotional/personality based. It's why I'm treated with a combination of meds and psychotherapy - there is just some things the meds can't treat, and vice versa. But overall as long as your symptoms are being treated adequately and you feel like you're making progress, having one diagnosis or another is just labelling that doesn't necessarily affect outcome at the end of the day.
I do know how you feel though, because I had one psychotic episode outside of a depressed state, and wondered if that meant I was Schizoaffective, and my Pdoc said if that was the case he'd consider me to be 'High Function Schizaffective with retained insight'. I ended up driving him mad, I'm sure, for the next few months as I kept wanting to know what the difference between Schizoaffective and MDD with Psychotic Fx was, and which one did I have, exactly. I thought if only I could know exactly what was wrong with me I could somehow research ways to fix my brain and make myself better. In the end I had to accept that really one diagnosis over another doesn't always change the way things are treated. If you feel you are being adequately treated in all areas of your mental/emotional health, then how much does having a label of Bipolar 1 or 2 really matter?