[insideout]

Can Bipolar 1 become so severe that it makes you switch into different people, and then forget what that other self did?
Can a mood swing be so severe that you have an alter? With different life goals, different interests, different behavior and way of talking?

Can Bipolar 1 co-occur with DID? and is it possible to have an alter that doesn't even have Biploar 1?

[hamster-bamster]

I had a T who believed that people with bp and did have alters who react differently to medications. She was a really weird lady, in hindsight, so I in no way want to spread her worldview around, but since you asked...

Originally Posted by insideout

Can Bipolar 1 become so severe that it makes you switch into different people, and then forget what that other self did?
Can a mood swing be so severe that you have an alter? With different life goals, different interests, different behavior and way of talking?

Can Bipolar 1 co-occur with DID? and is it possible to have an alter that doesn't even have Biploar 1?

i've always had the belief that it can

in fact- their is no reason why that wouldn't be true

i'm not DID myself, but i do believe that it's happened to me in other ways

[faerie_moon_x]

I don't know but I know I have some dissociation. I don't feel like I ever become someone else, but I do feel that I'm far away from myself sort of 'watching' during an episode.

I also have a something I call other me which is like another me, but I don't become her, she's just like another person I confer with. I haven't figured out exactly what that is yet.

Maybe it's possible to have both. I don't really know much about DID, so I'm just guessing.

[Trippin2.0]

It is possible for one alter to have MI and the host / other alters not.

Check out the DID forum if you want the inside scoop.

That being said, it is possible for psychosis to fragment your mind in a sense. I was once 4 people during an episode, but I don't have DID, just came very close to unravelling Also dissociation as mentioned above by dear Dark Heart, can cause a type of amnesia while in that mind state. Think blank rage.... I've been hearing since childhood that I'm capable of some violent acts and stronger than people twice my size when enraged. But I wouldn't know

[Confusedinomicon]

I used to disassociate a lot when I was younger. Apparently Id have conversations with people and never remember any of it. I spent my childhood engrossed in a fantasy world I made up online. Also get blind rage, too.

I think you can have both because DID is generally associated with some kind of abuse/trauma and bipolar is not. (There is plenty of PTSD/bipolar comorbodity too)

[ultramar]

Originally Posted by Confusedinomicon

I used to disassociate a lot when I was younger. Apparently Id have conversations with people and never remember any of it. I spent my childhood engrossed in a fantasy world I made up online. Also get blind rage, too.

I think you can have both because DID is generally associated with some kind of abuse/trauma and bipolar is not. (There is plenty of PTSD/bipolar comorbodity too)

I think they're really two very different experiences (which doesn't mean they can't co-occur). I do become a completely different person when manic in so many ways, but then again, however different I am, it is still, on some level, part of my 'self.' Or that's how I choose to think about it, maybe to some extent it depends on how one perceives these things, on a personal level.

I think people can also have very different aspects of the self (there are some interesting articles on 'self-states') that aren't exactly separate people, per se. I don't understand DID very well, so I'm probably not much help. I would be interested in knowing the difference between self-states and alters, but that would be for a different thread and probably a different forum. In general I'd say I don't think a characteristic of bipolar disorder is splitting into different alters.

I don't know though, it would be interesting to discuss psychosis as a manifestation of a kind of different/separate self... Interesting stuff.

[ultramar]

Originally Posted by Confusedinomicon

I used to disassociate a lot when I was younger. Apparently Id have conversations with people and never remember any of it. I spent my childhood engrossed in a fantasy world I made up online. Also get blind rage, too.

I think you can have both because DID is generally associated with some kind of abuse/trauma and bipolar is not. (There is plenty of PTSD/bipolar comorbodity too)

Actually there is some research indicating that a good percentage of those with bipolar disorder experienced early trauma. Although the fact is, if you really dig into the research, they seem to have found early trauma as a common denominator in many mental illnesses these days. There's so much research on trauma, they seem to be finding this evidence in more and more mental illnesses, although flaws in research methods have been pointed out as well, so I think it's hard to be sure of the correlation all around.

[insideout]

I want to explain the details of my experiences, but I feel like someone is monitoring what I say here, just waiting for enough evidence to lock me up and ruin my life.
But what you guys explained is right on track with what I experience.