How do you know you are bipolar not depressed?

I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety. The meds I have been on did little to end my bad spells. The days I get really angry for one reason or another. I have them about every other month sometimes. I noticed them around my PMS time so I decided to take the pill continuously to regulate my hormones. It seems like I am not as strong in my anger but get seriously teary at times. There are some times I am extremely excited but only like every other week. Mostly pretty average in my personality. Is this bipolar or just like my dr. says depression/anxiety. Just stick with antidepressants.

"How do you know you are bipolar not depressed?"

Therapists have a specific questionaire that they ask their clients and based on that refer the client they suspect as having Bipolar to a psychiatrist for a comprehensive psychological evaluation for diagnosis.

very true what myself has said. you'll be evaluated by a psychiatrist first, before a diagnosis is made.

I was misdiagnosed for 30 years! The doc (was going to my GP--not a pdoc) kept increasing my dosage of anti-depressants or changing me to a different one because I would feel REALLY good for 6-8 weeks & I thought the anti-depressants were working (didn't realize I was flipping into a mania--neither did doc). I have to be fair, though, I never went to the doc when I was manic, I just thought wow--I love these pills then I would crash & head back to the doc. FINALLY, I went to a new IM doc & she thought I was in a mixed state--agitated & depressed--& sent me to a pdoc. Plus, bipolar is highly genetically determined. My mother had bipolar. If someone in your family has it, you are more apt to have it. The pdoc first tried Depakote which helped with the agitation but did nothing for the depression. Then tried lithium which worked GREAT except that I had abnormal kidney function on that & had to quit. After much trial & error, I'm on a bunch of meds that seem to be doing the trick (except some of you may have read about the episode I had a couple weeks ago--first one in 4 years). I'm hoping that was a fluke & that the meds will continue to work. Talk to your doc about all of your moods, not just the depression. Have you gone through periods where you were really excited, elated, talking faster than normal, spending recklessly, calling long-lost friends in the middle of the night, sleeping little & still feeling energetic, joining clubs & orgainizations & volunteering to be on every committee---these were all symptoms of my mania that I didn't report cuz I just though great, the depression is gone.

I don't think I have the serious periods of mania, I do have days where I am super silly with my coworkers but I sleep more than probably normal and I tend to say no to volunteering anymore because I got tired of being miss goody goody doing it all the time. The only issue I still can't control is my anger. There are times when I just can't hold it in. Last night though I felt I did pretty good. The person that usually gets me upset didn't last night because I wasn't the only one bothered by him. We all kinda stuck together through it which makes it easier to not blow up. However, I have times that I just get so upset I blowup or end up crying alone about it. My kids tell me to get tough. Which is what I tell them but how come it can hurt so much when ppl are just plain rude.

hi mate,it sounds like the others have covered good advice so I wont rave on too much(almost impossible for me.lol,but I have type 2 that is apparently less severe as 1,but I know now I have definately had type 1 on a few occassions,I was told once about PMT that you can have symptoms for up to 10 days before,but if yur tired which maybe not,as you said you sleep a lot,that can be enough to go off easily,I'm the same,but try to curb it.good luck,keep us informed.