Bipolar & ADD

How many of you have both conditions (dx-ed)? If you have both, when did your bipolar symptoms start? How fast do you usually cycle? What meds are you on? Do you want me to shut up with all of these questions already? (sorry; I'm in a hypomanic oasis in an otherwise depressive desert and I'm all WOOHOO!!! Which makes me type whatever the heck I'm thinking with minimal editing.)

If you are not diagnosed with ADD, do you feel like you probably have it (I fall into this group)? For those of you (again like me) with mild hypomanias, do you ever wonder if you might have ADD and depression instead of bipolar?

Thanks for playing and have a nice night everybody!

I have Bipolar I and ADHD. I am on Geodon, lamictal, lexapro, lyrica for my bipolar and adderall for my adhd. From what my mom says I have been bipolar all my life but I didnt get dx until I was 21. My pdoc says bipolar and adha/add go together.

Haha!!!!
You are too funny..
I like that little schpiel you just did cuz thats whats going on with me too.

I definitely have been feeling like that- adhd lately- im all over the place, but i'm diagnosed professionally by a psychiatrist as Bipolar. I probably have both, but one DR i saw, said no, I definitely was not adult adhd, he said "you would have shown symptoms as a child" and I did not...... -even though I did grow up right next to an International Airport and apparently studies have shown a "Higher rate of adhd in children who grew up by an airport".. lol. (the Dr. didn't tell me that, I read it somewhere).
I personally think the whole ffn town was a little "off". Anyways that study how could it be right -there would be zilions of people with it.

But back to the question I definitely have Bipolar 1 Disorder. It can get really severe but

finally I have excepted it.

I have bipolar 1 but I feel like I may also have add. I know I have bipolar for sure.

Secretum, Am dx'd with both plus panic disorder w/o agoraphobia. Actually do pretty well on meds which are lamictal, clonopin, dexedrine, neuron tin, with inderal for anxiety & atarax for sleep as needed.
Last mixed episodes were this spring, when really stressed in personal life. Worst was summer/early fall of 2000 was completely non-functional, & loosing touch with reality, if you know what I mean.
This summer my pdoc finally increased my lamictal& clonopin as I was about to loose it again.
Hope this helps.

I definitely have BPII, but I've often wondered about ADHD, too.

The big red flag about my ADHD was that I did very poorly in school, with my grades & lack of social ability & maturity.

Stayed overstimulated, couldn't grasp what was being taught & was embarrassed about it cause I couldn't help it.

And the dx's just kept com in...

I don't think I had ADHD in school. I got good grades and didn't have to work much for it.
But I did suffer from depression. I was only dx'd with depression when I was 23; a few months later, my dx changed to BP II. Recently, my pdoc has suggested ADHD symptoms are there too. I'll see him in 2 weeks and go from there. I was on Concerta for just a few days, and did notice a change

I have both BP and ADD, both diagnosed. I take Concerta for the ADD.

I truly believe I started showing symptoms of BP as a very young child. I also suffered from terrible anxiety and panic attacks when I was a young child.

They just did a few studies on Concerta and they found that it is very good for BP Depression and I have to say it works. Look it up online and it will say that it is now used for BP Depression as well as ADD.

Thanks everyone. Chaotic, I'm glad that you got the med increases you needed. Hopefully you can stay well for a very long time into the future. And SunAngel, thanks for sharing your story. You've been through a lot, but you are always here to help the rest of us. And Seaswept, that is funny about the correlation between ADHD and being taught near an airport. I definitely can see how the noise might lead to more ADHD symptoms. I've heard that allowing children to watch TV before they are 2 yrs old also increases the risk.

I've had ADHD symptoms for as long as I can remember; they far outdate the mood symptoms. This is why I believe that it may be a separate issue, as a mood disorder alone can also often wreak havoc on attention. I could write a PhD dissertation on procrastination (but will do it later), I take twice as long as everyone else to do things like shower and brush my teeth because I am in my own little world. I can't do most sports because I can't focus on a single goal, like getting a ball through a hoop, for longer than 3 seconds.

When I was small, I had homework that involved looking words up in the dictionary and writing down their meanings. I read the dictionary for hours because actually starting on the assignment was too painful.

It is (and always has been) difficult for me to attend to subtle social cues, and to take care of subtle details of my appearance. For example, my socks often do not match.

And I am the most disorganized person you have ever met. My friends would "clean" my room for me when I was little. (I hated that. I couldn't find where anything was with their ridiculous organizational system for weeks).

So, yeah. I probably have ADD in addition to bipolar. People are very reluctant to diagnose it in college kids, however. They are all afraid that we are just after amphetamines. So annoying...

And also, there is virtually no information about co-morbid ADHD and bipolar d/o in adults available. I've searched and searched. Grr..