Can bipolar mimic ACOA?

Hi. New Meds are going well. Saw therapist. She says she thinks I am traumatized (ptsd?) by growing up in an alcoholic household. She asked me why I think I'm bipolar. Uh.... because I have had all the symptoms for the last 20 years?? You CAN have both I'm sure! Well I'm just wondering where she's trying to go saying I was traumatized by my alcoholic dad and that my symptoms stem from being an adult child of an alcoholic. .That and she’s obviously anti-psych meds! I feel I'm caught between her and Pdoc! And pdoc recommended her!

Hi @Moose72 I am sorry that you feel torn between the therapist and the pdoc. I think if you no longer feel supported by the therapist and that they are contradicting the meds you have been on for a long time it may be time to talk to the pdoc and ask what about the therapist made them recommend them.

I could not be with someone that was not listening to me but trying to impose their theories on me.

Even if you were affected by alcoholic dad, that does not contradict the need you have to learn how to cope with the mental health challenges you face. That is in my opinion what I would want the therapist to do with me.

CANDC

[If you want me to see your reply to this post please include @CANDC in your message - not in requoting my message]

RD Laing used to call it "crazy-making."

I think the way it would work is, grossly inadequate parenting / neglect truncates development of our brain cells. They have done studies that a high Adverse Childhood Events score correlates to bad adult stuff. Sorry - info goes in but it doesnt come back out!

When's the next time you see your pdoc? I'd love to see his reaction if you tell him what she said. It's always fun when you tell two professionals they see things oppositely (or at least differently). I bet it'd be even more fun when one recommended the other

Bipolar is known as the most "physical" of the "mental" illnesses. There are surefire symptoms like disrupted circadian cycles (not just sleeping, but with eating, drinking, other daily activities too), and there are a lot of similar physical abnormalities between many patients with bipolar (for example, ppl w/bipolar tend to have more hyperintensities in their brain than others. I had an MRI once and they found a few. It tends to run in families which could point to genetic (but could point to just generational trauma and various reactions on the flip side), and there are some changes in certain chemicals during episodes like noradrenaline increasing during mania and decreasing during depression (but this doesn't necessarily mean it's causing the whole of the mania/depression or is a change that happens on its own that causes the mania/depression, could be the reason those symptoms show up, could be some kind of response).

Basically, there are things they know but no one knows what to do with the things they know because they don't know enough. Also psychology/psychiatry research tends to be underfunded compared to the creation of new medications that could keep businesses going instead of actually furthering our knowledge and furthering our ability to help people (unless "people" are "pfizer")

I talked with my long time friend last night who used to be a behavioral pharmacologist (researched psych drugs) and now is a therapist and he looked up my therapist and said to run away from her because everything is trauma to her! She even told me I was traumatized as a kid but stopped short of saying I have ptsd. She abhors psych meds and asked me “So what makes you think you’re bipolar?” And I said “doctors repeatedly diagnosing me as such over the last 20 years!”!

With your history, Moose, she is the crazy one to question the diagnosis. And I agree, she clearly has her agenda that she is pushing. Stay away.

This is only tangentially related, but prevalence-wise, alcoholism is much more prevalent than bipolar. Since many alcoholics have children, being an ACOA is also much more prevalent than being bipolar. If she is saying that being an ACOA leads to the symptoms you have experienced for two decades, why does such a small portion of ACOA population go on to experience those specific symptoms?

I fired her! She said trauma causes psychosis! I told my Pdoc that and she was floored and then explained how your brain produces psychosis.

Hopefully your pdoc won't refer others to this woman now.

Oh she won’t. Not after my case manager and I told her how she is.

My case manager reported her! She included the 9 complaints I wrote out about her! Including their ever popular “trauma causes psychosis “! You should’ve seen my pdoc’s face when I told her that! She then explained what happens in your brain during psychosis. She- therapist- asked me why I want to kill my friend!! Wtf?