[Needanswersamncgn]

I've had depression and anxiety my whole life and had a rough childhood so my "quest" to go to doctors and go on meds started at 20 years old on my own. I got to the point where I couldn't handle the anxiety anymore so that's when I was put on my first antidepressant. I had been on at least 8 different meds until a new doctor told me I had bipolar 3 years ago and put me on Seroquel. I am now 36 and they want to switch me to Lithium.

None of the docs ever did a full evaluation even after I'd requested it. I kept changing docs and meds over these last 15 years because nothing worked. I still always felt off.

I stumbled across an article just this week called "ADD or Bipolar" and had some major realizations. I NEVER thought I would have ADD because both my son and husband have major ADHD and I just didn't see me that way. After reading this article, I did a lot of thinking and realized that I may just have been misdiagnosed all these years.

Has anyone ever dealt with this - both ADD and Bipolar or a misdiagnosis of either?

[Travelinglady]

Hi, needanswersamncgn, and welcome to Psych Central! The two diagnoses must have similar symptoms, because my son was first diagnosed with bipolar and medicated for that, and then his diagnosis was changed to ADD.

[boyne]

I'm really confused about this right now. I'm diagnosed with ADD, GAD, and depression, and my therapist said she hasn't ruled out bipolar disorder. I've been doing some reading and some of the symptoms I've been associating with ADD also sound like mania? which, now that I think about it, is also odd, because my ADD is overwhelmingly inattentive type. there are other things too that sound more like bipolar than ADD. it's hard for me to tell what are abnormal degrees of behavior/experience and what are normal ones, because most of the people I'm close to exhibit a variety of disorders, and I've spent a lot of my life convincing myself that I'm completely ok (to my detriment).

[dADDio]

Boyne I Feel you. I wish I did something decades ago. After 20 years of trying and failing at being a manager of people, ( consistently lasting about 2 years at a job before getting 'mutually separated', neither of us really understanding why I struggled at the role) I have reached a point where I either fix this thing..... or bag groceries for a living.

3 months into treatment and doc has me on both Adderall and some medication for Bipolar, along with Ativan to knock out the anxiety. I haven't figured out which combination works best for me yet, but they absolutely help. Also freaking kill me when I stop taking them, like on a weekend.

I don't know if I"m Bipolar or have mood swings that are corrected by the med yet. The meds help with the symptoms, but the real problem is the 'wall' that comes down in my brain when I use it alot. None of the meds help that.