[Starchild3]

I just took the Adult ADD quiz here on PC and it said I was severely ADD. The main symptoms of ADD and the hypomanic/manic phase of BP are very similar. I do go into a depressed state also so i that what makes me BP vs having ADD. I know I'm not a doctor but I'm just curious. Anyone know the differences between the two?

[Anneinside]

In order to be diagnosed as having bipolar you have to have manic or hypomanic epiosdes. For Bipolar 1 all you need is one manic episode - that means severe enough that you might have been hospitalized for it. For Bipolar II you have to have had at least one hypomanic episode and a depressive episode. If you look at the list of symptoms for hypo(mania) and compare it to ADD there really aren't that many in common. You can look both of them up on psychcentral under conditions.

[Anneinside]

I just looked at ADD on this site "The main features of attention deficit disorder (or ADHD) are inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity." Those are not the main symptoms of mania which are:

• Inflated self-esteem or grandiosity
• Decreased need for sleep (e.g., one feels rested after only 3 hours of sleep)
• More talkative than usual or pressure to keep talking
• Flight of ideas or subjective experience that thoughts are racing
• Attention is easily drawn to unimportant or irrelevant items
• Increase in goal-directed activity (either socially, at work or school, or sexually) or psychomotor agitation
• Excessive involvement in pleasurable activities that have a high potential for painful consequences (e.g., engaging in unrestrained buying sprees, sexual indiscretions, or foolish business investments)

The only thing similar is inattention in ADD and distractibility in bipolar, which actually are not the same.

[SunAngel]

Originally Posted by Starchild3

I just took the Adult ADD quiz here on PC and it said I was severely ADD. The main symptoms of ADD and the hypomanic/manic phase of BP are very similar. I do go into a depressed state also so i that what makes me BP vs having ADD. I know I'm not a doctor but I'm just curious. Anyone know the differences between the two?

I have both BP1 and ADD, not ADHD.

[Starchild3]

Thanks. I was basing it off of the questions on the quiz. They seemed similar to BP questions.