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Old Apr 22, 2014, 06:29 AM
Anonymous37909
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sacasa View Post
Hi, I'm Sam and I'm new to these forums.

Once upon a time (about a year ago) I had a really strange episode where I was paranoid about everything. first I thought that someone in one of my college classes was a bomber, then I started to think that all of my classes would be attacked by a gunman and I was terrified every second of each one. Eventually I just stopped going to some of my classes because I was too scared. Then I was convinced the buses I was taking would be bombed and started walking 45 minutes to school and back instead of taking the bus. Then I started to feel unsafe in my apartment and thought someone in my building (my downstairs neighbor was going to demolish the building. Then I started to worry that someone would try to shoot me through my walls or door so I found the safest places in my apt to dodge a bullet. A bit later I was convinced that my downstairs neighbor wanted to shoot me through her ceiling and that was the final straw that made me leave school and come home. It continued for a bit at home (to a slightly lesser degree) but eventually the thoughts stopped.

My Psychiatrist (actually a nurse practitioner who specializes in psychiatric medication management) thinks that this qualifies as a kind of manic episode, but I'm not sure about that. I do have major depressive episodes, but I don't know if they're actually part of a bipolar spectrum disorder or not.

Does this sound at all like bipolar symptoms to you? Because I think that was more of a paranoid episode related to my problems with anxiety but unrelated to the other disorder(s) I have. Thanks in advance. Hope to get to know you all
A second opinion might be helpful. Your symptoms might be bipolar, or they might be related to anxiety. Someone I know reported similar symptoms, and was correctly diagnosed with anxiety disorder. Disorders can mimic each other.

I feel that a good psychiatrist will take a detailed history, and monitor you over several weeks before coming to a "diagnosis". That's what my psychiatrist did -- she put me on a mood stabilizer early on, but she didn't come out with a "diagnosis" until she had more information.