Don't know if I have bipolar disorder

Hi, I'm here because I would like to better understand what's wrong with me... I have been going to a therapist for like a month but then stopped.
This is my story: I'm 21 and for the past 10 years or so I have been feeling depressed for long periods of times alternating with some periods of "euphoria". Every time I keep feeling low I start thinking I might be depressed or have something that I can't understand but after a while depression disappears and I start feeling more energetic, funnier, more alive, the life of the party. I've been struggling with these alternating swings for a long time and lately these have become a problem because I'm in college and I haven't managed to finish regularly exams and tests: sometimes I feel so confident and ace it completely and some other times it's like I can't even open my books because I prefer to stay in bed watching tv all day. The thing is that the stuff I'm studying doesn't bore me at all, it fascinates me but at the same time I'm not able to pick the book up. Very lately I've been thinking that I might have bipolar disorder because the symptoms fit but I'm not sure because up to this point of my life I've tried to tag my behaviors with some particular illness but never been able to find something. I'm terribly worried to what might happen to me because I really need and want to continue college but I can't move on from this situation. Please help me...

My psychiatrist saved my marriage , and my life. Too bad I was age 63 before my wife made me see the right one. The one before, saw him for about 3 years, wasn't the right one. He was not given me right medications. So the "right" one is best. Just like the right medications, and for God's sake do not decide to stop taken them just because "you" want to. I gave up all smoking, and pot, and alcohol because that can interfere with your medicines. Especially in the early stages when your doctor is trying to find what will work best. I personally feel only a doctor will be able to find out what is going on, and you can see here there is much. Think I read the sooner the better for your brain and it functions runs better. I am Bipolar II.

I'm not a pdoc or therapist but what yr describing sounds alot like bp. I would continue to start seeing that therapist again. You need to get these feelings out in the open...do you have a pdoc you can trust? If not I would find one asap. You are struggling alone with these issues and you don't have to. Sometimes it takes a little while to find the right meds to help you but you can do it! I found alot of relief from therapy...read as much as you can about bp to learn the signs and symptoms. You don't need to suffer alone. For 7 years i suffered thinking I just had depression...it really sucked. Then inn 2004 I was hospitalized and finally properly diagnosed with bp2. I was suffering for years on only anti depressants and those alone can make bp so much worse. I got on a mood stabilizer and my life was transformed. Please get some good help. You can feel better. Let us know how things are going. Yr not alone in this. We are here for you. Hugs

OH- forgot. The day my wife and I saw the psychiatrist it went like this. She said right away I was Bipolar, due to the way I talked, being manic. She said I needed to be at such and such hospital by 7:00 am the next morning. It's a place I never heard about, and was a school converted. About 20 miles away. My wife and I got there, and one of the first things they did was have me remove my shoe strings. I started crying right then and there. Me just thinking I might kill myself was a shock. Had my wife carry home all but two sets of cloths because they wash them there. Not too pleasant being there. Shared small room with a mate. One biggest room we all shared I guessed measured maybe 20' X 35'. I counted 18 people there in that room at same time. I made maybe two friends. One poor girl, looking very meek and sad, I played dominoes with number of times. She loved someone being kind and spending time with. Then this other guy, maybe 20's to 30' came and we hit it off. He did not seem "funny" in any way. Then there was this room on the side, stayed locked, until the psychiatrist got there every Thursday. When you are called to go in there, and you never know when that will be, there sits at the end of the long table the psychiatrist, and maybe six more people. You are asked questions by the psychiatrist and others there. I think I did ask when I may be able to go home, a mistake I was told by that new guy. It was evident he had been there, or somewhere else before. He told me never ask them when I will be able to leave. So I never again asked them. Low and behold after the next time I had to go in there, I was always nervous, they had me leaving in the afternoon. That place was kept locked tight. I recall three were 3 high school girls sent there due to taken drugs. Guess they got caught and maybe a judge sent them there. All 3 girls said they would meet at such and such place for treatment when they were released, but never did. I asked one of the psychiatrist our group met with what would probably happen with those girls, and he said they would probably end up right back.

The food was brought by automobile. Some books and mags, but nothing I cared about. Had a TV but with me being naturally down, not much at all I cared about. Think I recall a number wanted, and did watch sports which I cared "nothing" about. I do not know how some people take it, even when they have to, get out not being nuts, but boy was I feeling good when the day came. Think I was there 11 to 14 days. It's a place to put people so they can better get medications right, and know patients are not doing something like drugs as well.

It definitely sounds like these symptoms are affecting your life negatively. Bipolar really messed me up when I was in college (I'm 23 now) and I wish I had had the motivation and foresight to really get it checked out then before I had my first breakdown after my freshman year. Do yourself a favor and see a doctor. Getting the diagnosis isn't a death sentence - it will help you get the right treatment so you can move on with your life. I hope you feel better soon! <3

If you think you are BP then you need to see a doctor, only a doctor can give you that diagnoses. You can start with your PCP or GP if you need to and get a referral, There are many things that can cause fluctuating moods and you need to have physical illness ruled out first. Going on BP medications isn't something you just do because you think you are a diagnoses it's a serious decision that requires a though examination. I once knew someone who thought she was BP and she convinced a doctor to give her BP medications. that really messed her up as she wasn't BP. So go to a doctor with an open mind and let them figure out what the problem is, if you go in telling the docs you have something they might be more inclined to think that's what you have without ruling anything else out.