[grlnmt66]

...its normal to feel up and down...thats life. Whatever...

I think what I would do in this case is ask this dr to print you off some mood charts and keep track over a few months. This will give you both a better picture of what's happening. My dr gives me mood charts he prints off. I'm sure he gives me the ones he likes to use. They include rating your depression from mild, moderate, or severe as well as mania, and anxiety, a space to fill in hours slept, and a space to make any notes, also a space for females to track menstruation. I charted for about a year and this gave my dr and I both a very good idea of my patterns and severity.

Charting is also very helpful when starting a new med, such as now. Because sometimes it's hard for us to see the big picture or remember how we felt or are feeling.

Worth a shot right? I think Cyclothymia would be even harder to distinguish.

[Confusedinomicon]

Your doctor is right about this. If you track your mood you can see if your mood is independent of the external events that are happening in your life. Like for instance, when I become hypomanic I have a tendency to feel intense emotions for a person and dream of affairs. I also sleep less and feel better about myself independent to what is going on. I get triggered easily and my happiness can easily turn into anger. It hurts my grades because I care less about how I am doing and I get obsessed with something else. Everyones experience is slightly different depending on severity. There should be some kind of pattern though

External events do cause a person to react negatively or positively. As patients we need to learn to distinguish normal reactions fron bp reactions and only time and perseverance to see those patterns will help. (You can use various things to do this)

Originally Posted by Confusedinomicon

... If you track your mood you can see if your mood is independent of the external events that are happening in your life....
External events do cause a person to react negatively or positively. As patients we need to learn to distinguish normal reactions fron bp reactions and only time and perseverance to see those patterns will help. (You can use various things to do this)

Oooh, good point! Moods not making any sense in light of external events. That's a really important thing to remember in trying to tell them apart. For years my first severe and persistent depression confused me (didn't know I had BP). Everything was great. I was having a really good time. Then "wham!" out of nowhere, and it hit hard. And didn't let up for months. My world fell apart. It changed the course of my life in a major way.

Decades later, some are obvious to me and some it's harder to tell for absolutely certain.

I'll second that mood tracking is very useful. And that cyclothymia would not be as obvious, but worth keeping track of things (depending on how you feel about it of course) to see for yourself what goes on, how disruptive it is to your basic functioning in life and whether it's problematic to the point where help should be sought. Help meaning different things depending on your findings.

When you say "new physician", is it a GP or specialist of some kind?

[grlnmt66]

Thanks for the advise on charting my moods with a mood chart. I suppose I need to be more exact in keeping track of them outside of putting smilies on my calendar, lol! @ innerzone Im seeing a GP...I am applying for assistance to see a psychiatrist...I dont have insurance. HOPEING Ill get lucky and that the Prozac will do the trick.