Hey there.

It sounds to me that the incident was drug (medication) induced. What you describe is a well-documented side-effect of anti-depressant medication that a number of people have reported. After they take the meds for a bit they start to feel irritable and anxious and frustrated and a bit compulsive. They may experience suicidal ideation that is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from suicidal ideation that they have had before. They may start to have urges / desires to hurt others. Some people have gone on to attempt suicide or to hurt others. There have been legal cases about this where people have sued their doctors for not seeing that these were side-effects of the medications and for not taking them off the medication when they told their doctors about their side-effects. The pharmaceutical companies have given some of these people huge out of court settlements to keep the cases out of court. There still is something that is referred to as the 'Prozac defence' however. Basically... 'The Prozac made me do it'.

The symptoms most often remit once the medication is ceased. There are some symptoms (movement disorders - tardive dyskinesias) that do not remit once the medication has ceased, however.

> Looking back now, it seems clear to me (and my new therapist) that it was a Bipolar manic episode, triggered by the meds.

Mmm... No, I don't think so. A Bi-polar manic episode is different from a drug or a medication induced manic episode. And I'm not sure that it is a 'manic' episode so much as the well documented side effects of agitation / compulsivity etc.

There is a great deal of controversy over the limits / boundaries of the following diagnoses:

1) Borderline personality disorder.
2) Rapid cycling bi-polar disorder.

Basically... If you see someone who focuses in on therapy you are likely to get the first diagnosis. If you see someone who don't feel they have the skills to see you in therapy and therefore wants to refer you on for medication or you see someone who deals in medication rather than therapy they are much more likely to diagnose you with rapid cycling bi-polar disorder.

Both conditions are sometimes treated with mood stabilizers (which were developed as anti-epileptics originally). The difference between the diagnoses is really a matter of 'personality' vs 'organic' connotation. And it will probably turn out that they are the same condition really at the end of the day and that the choice in diagnosis comes down to differences in theoretical orientation between clinicians.