Bipolar or ADD?

I've had depression and anxiety my whole life and had a rough childhood so my "quest" to go to doctors and go on meds started at 20 years old on my own. I got to the point where I couldn't handle the anxiety anymore so that's when I was put on my first antidepressant. I had been on at least 8 different meds until a new doctor told me I had bipolar 3 years ago and put me on Seroquel. I am now 36 and they want to switch me to Lithium.

None of the docs ever did a full evaluation even after I'd requested it. I kept changing docs and meds over these last 15 years because nothing worked. I still always felt off.

I stumbled across an article just this week called "ADD or Bipolar" and had some major realizations. I NEVER thought I would have ADD because both my son and husband have major ADHD and I just didn't see me that way. After reading this article, I did a lot of thinking and realized that I may just have been misdiagnosed all these years.

Has anyone ever dealt with this - both ADD and Bipolar or a misdiagnosis of either?

Hello, Needanswersamncgn, and welcome to Psych Central! Evidently the two diagnoses can be mixed up. My son was first diagnosed with bipolar and then later the doc decided he had ADD instead.

Welcome to PC!
Yes. I've been dx'd with both. BP first. There's never been any doubt on that one. The ADD one came later, and I was not quick to believe. Like you, I didn't particularly see myself reflected in what I understood it to be (which was a pretty limited profile.) Then I learned more. Now I can see it. There is quite a bit of crossover in symptoms. Sometimes one dx will cover. Other times there's symptomatically more to account for than one dx will cover.

It's curious that having the AD without a mood stabilizer (apparently) didn't send you manic-y. Unless I misunderstand. That would certainly cause me to wonder if there was a mis-dx. Were the 8 meds all anti-depressants? (The ones preceding the BP dx/ Seroquel). It might well be that your symptoms are all accounted for by ADD. It's worth looking into. I'd think one of the things to think about would be symptomatic spans. That is to say, have your symptoms had a cyclical sort of pattern like BP, or is it pretty much just a day in day out consistent pattern?

Not to dx your situation, but I know BP has a symptom that's similar to ADHD. I personally have major attention issues, space out on many occasions, and lose time.

I'm told this is part of the BP.

Though, I personally wonder if its more of ADHD in conjunction to the BP.

This is a tough question. I definitely would talk to your pdoc and get to the bottom of it. I can understand how frustrating this can be.

Best if luck to you 😊

why not both?

I'm bipolar and have lots of add symptoms as well. haven't been diagnosed with it but suspect it. It could BE both. I agree with jesusplay