I don't know what's going on..

I am an 18 year old female and since I was young I had noticed I have very VERY bad mood swings. Sometimes I feel great about myself or everything and in a split second I hate everyone and want to murder everyone. Or I'll feel happy and within minutes I'll feel sad and down. It's extremely hard to explain, but I will try as best as I can, I get this feeling inside where one side is like be angry with everyone and the other side is like be happy and I get so frustrated inside trying to figure out my emotion that my frustration comes out. My family lately has been telling me I could be Bipolar and they've thought so for awhile, but I don't know. My irritability is out of the window. Any little thing is said or done and I become extremely irritated and pissed off. It can be from my grandfather wondering if i'm hungry and saying "Go ahead and eat an apple" I become irate. It sounds silly, but I feel bad that I react towards my family like this. It gets to a point where no one can talk to me because they become upset with me that I get angry. I need some advice or how were your experiences with bipolar disorder before you were diagnosed. Is this similar or could this be something completely different? I feel like I am lost with myself. I have a child as well and I get angry or irritated very quickly with her and I don't like that feeling.

Fist welcome

I know what it feels like to be that irritative (yes, my own word) The best thing to do is to get evaluated. While waiting set a schedule, limit or eliminate caffeine, and work out HARD when your irritated. You may want to use the mood chart on here to track mood, a mood/event/though chart, track sleeping, diet, and exercise to bring to the Pdoc. Look into therapists while waiting because they are usually faster to get into then pdocs.

Anger is the one of the primary symptoms of bipolar. Irritability is listed under mania. You might want to read about bipolar and also borderline personality disorder. You can read about them here on psychcentral. Look under "conditions" at the top of the page. Eventually, you will need to see a mental health specialist for a diagnosis and treatment, if necessary.

You probably should make an appointment as soon as possible to be evaluated by a psychiatrist. You want to make sure that your little child doesn't feel the effects of your anger.

She needs a calm, quiet atmosphere for growing into a healthy young lady. Help her
and yourself be being evaluated and, if it turns out to be bipolar, you will need to be medicated to correct the chemical imbalance in the brain that is bipolar illness.

Good wishes,

Genetic

Medication helps me tremendously to sail calmly through the waters that in the past would have made me completely pissed off.