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Originally Posted by kaliope
it was explained to me that I have bipolar 1 instead of 2 because I have psychosis. but my t told me I present mostly as bipolar 2 because I am more prone to hypomanias more than anything else, but I have to have the other diagnosis because of the occasional psychosis and you don't have psychosis with bipolar 2. I also have ptsd. it is true the same meds work for a lot of different things. I was a rapid cycler so I always seemed to be either manic or depressed more than I had a stable mood. I knew it was just emotional because no matter what I did behaviorally to address it, nothing impacted or lessened it severity. no amount of coping skills changed what I was going through. once I got on the right medication....bingo...it was gone...take care
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What medication was it initially? I had PTSD too, and after checking into this more, PTSD and life events can trigger the bipolar disorder. The only problem I had was anxiety before I got PTSD, so the borderline doesn't fit enough to attribute symptoms to. I'm glad you finally better.
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Originally Posted by wildflowerchild25
It can be very difficult to tease out what is PTSD or borderline and what is bipolar. I have been dx'ed with all. From fourteen to 20, I was a mess. Hospitalizations, state hospital, residential treatment, alternative school. When I was 19 I received the dx of bipolar 2. I said that's not even possible as I was never happy, thus no hypomania. I felt It was definitely PTSD with borderline traits, because all my emotional anguish directly stemmed from childhood events. Eventually in 2006 I spent six months in a trauma treatment outpatient program and did some good work. It took me a couple more years but I finally was able to accept and forgive everything that had gone on. And I was great for six years. Sure, I would have a couple I months where if get depressed and wonder if the docs were all right about the BP, but it would always go away so I would never seek treatment.
My son was born three years ago and everything began deteriorating. But I still never believed I had BP because again, I never felt euphorically happy. At leat not that I recognized. Looking back I can see that yeah, maybe. Fast forward to a year ago when everything went crazy - depressions got deeper and more frequent, and hypomania progressed to full blown mania, and I finally sought treatment.
My point is I refused to believe BP until I had dealt with all my trauma in therapy. Once the distorted thinking and trauma reactions were no longer holding me back, and the BP symptoms became unmanageable, I had no choice but to try to accept the dx. You can absolutely have concurrent disorders. Therapy is your best chance at figuring out what is attributable to what.
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You have come a long way!
I agree about therapy. It's the reason why I'm now questioning my diagnosis and former treatment. The topics that come up each week are related to the bipolar symptoms. I have been saying it feels like I have brain damage, and my depression seems to be more of a result of fatigue, cognitive problems, and having no energy, which is effecting my job and social relationships, rather than emotional problems that come from life events or past trauma.Thanks for sharing all of that.