My Support Forums - View Single Post

starryprince · Jun 21, 2017, 01:15 AM

Hello all. I hope everyone's having a good day/night. In the depression thread, I spoke about my psychiatrist and therapist being hesitant to tell me what my diagnosis was after seeing them for almost 3 years. My psychiatrist just said, "Sounds like chronic depression" in our 2nd session together but very recently he said, "You definitely have a mood disorder". So he went from being specific to being broad. My therapist said, "Diagnosing can be so difficult" when I asked her what she thought my diagnosis might be (she implied that she thought it was Depression NOS). I've always been very aware of myself and I could feel as if I didn't really have/just have depression, but they wouldn't listen to me. My therapist said my instability in moods wasn't really instability but "it's you going from stable moments to moments of instability". That's exactly what she said, which sounds like instability to me. I told her about the spending money when I get happy and getting very irritable, especially when my depression hits, about the trouble concentrating and sleeping and my racing thoughts, about how I get very talkative when I'm in a good mood and it's hard for me to be quiet. She seemed to think all of that was situational.

I asked my psychiatrist a while ago if I might be bipolar. He said, "Are you manic?" I said, "I'm pretty sure I'm not MANIC, per say." He said, "Then you don't have bipolar."

Today was different. I didn't let down and I told him basically everything what I said up above and more, and he actually listened and he seemed genuinely confused. He said, "That sounds like hypomania." And I said, "Based on what you know now and what you've known about me, what would your diagnosis be?" And he said, "It would be Bipolar NOS but we need to look into it more."

So after seeing my psychiatrist for almost 3 years he FINALLY gave me some screening tests and told me to fill them out and we'll discuss the answers when we meet up again.

I just got my Masters in mental health counseling so with my background I had a feeling I might have been on the bipolar spectrum (cyclothymia, specifically), but I wanted a professional opinion. My instability in moods has been going on for far too long, since I was 13 (I'm 25 now). And I'd like some relief.

But at the same time I'm like, "Huh, so he actually agrees with me...This is new territory for me."

This was very long and rambling and I'm sorry but my thoughts are all over the place. I feel validated and better because I'm getting some answers but a bit afraid at the same time.

For anyone who was originally diagnosed as Bipolar NOS, how did that turn out?Did that diagnosis stay or was it narrowed down to something more specific?

Thank you for reading. I appreciate it.