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Originally Posted by sideblinded
I totally agree that ADD or ADHD's symptoms overlap with other disorders such as bipolar. Sometimes the ADD's cognition appears much like mania or hypomania in bipolar. Many docs are not well versed in ADHD and throw out bipolar too often. One pdoc I read quoted bipolar as a wastebasket diagnosis.
I understand the mix up because I, too was diagnosed with bipolar and the dx. was withdrawn from me a year ago. It is now being seen as ADHD missed from childhood. Psychiatry is not an exact science. I am so leery of the mental health system in general. The FDA is a crock, by the way. It really doesn't look out for the patient like we think. It looks out for big pharma.
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I know what you mean. I was hospitalized as a child in a psyche hospital: I was miraculously cured 12 months later...when my dad's insurance expired. As I was nearing the termination of the insurance, I tested my suspicians by assaulting staff and escaping, refusing therapy, etc. It did not in any way change their great therapeutic accomplishments or their future treatment recommendations. When I look back and read the diagnostic impressions, I am fascinated at how the impressions changed from therapist to therapist over time. They were giving me lithium---and all that did was ensure I was consistently empty inside---even though their litany of tests showed memory deficits, non verbal memory deficits, spatial deficits, right hemisphere brain damage/dysfunction, and my behavior was impulsive and oppositional. It was noted I could not concentrate on a school-related task for longer than 10 minutes, and that although my English was good my math was at the level of someone half my age, despite above average intelligence. All of the signs and symptoms of ADD/NVD were staring them in the face yet they could not see it. I started Adderall 30 years later and what do you know? Memory is what I always wanted it to be. Focus, concentration, patience... That hospital even knew I was dopamine deficient as a child, and they knew what ADD/ADHD was back then, and they had Ritalin. My impulsiveness remains unaltered on Adderall however: it is perhaps worse in the sense that I am even more honest than I was before getting on Adderall (when a person is a bad apple, honesty is self-destructive). I had/have other problems, but the attention deficit could have been managed and I might have channeled my ASPD into the business world and became a CEO instead of going the opposite direction. It's the shrink's fault I have a long felony record! That's just a joke, btw. But I do believe the outcome would have been different with ADD meds. I would have stayed in school, excelled, and gone on to college and obtained a good white collar job. Anyways, they thought I was bipolar too (one impression). Wrong.