So I started tracking my moods over the last 12 days... and I'll continue to do so to see if I actually do have cycles / patterns that may point to bipolar.

Anyway, my primary symptom is irritability. I've had this almost constantly (but some times way more than others) over the past 2 years or so. Life got real tough then, and continued to get more tough. Maybe I'm just burned out on life, or maybe it really is bipolar II.

So I was diagnosed as Bipolar II last week. My psychiatrist told me that you can have irritability has a primary symptom of Bipolar II, with other symptoms hit or miss from the DSM criteria.

My question really.. does anyone else have irritability has a primary symptom? Is it typical to have it almost all the time, regardless of going through an episode? Sometimes it eases up, but sometimes it's terribly bad. I find myself just wanting to stand in a room by myself, everyone annoys / bothers me, even sometimes my clothes on my skin make me irritated. I've found my irritability is WAY worse when I'm in my 'low' times, and it coincides with high anxiety. (So, more depressed mood = higher levels of anxiety / irritability).

Anyone else have this correlation? I've found the two times I've felt super 'up' the past few weeks, the anxiety / irritability went way down. I actually wanted to play with my kids and not want them to get away from me.

I was started on depakote 250... first few days on it I felt like it was a miracle drug... irritability GONE. Now I feel like crap again. Maybe I was just in an 'up' mood and didn't super realize it... and the drug was really doing nothing.