[tomboy2011]

my old pdoc told me I had bipolar and that was a while ago but today I saw my np and she told me that the only way to tell if I had bipolar was if I have gone nights without sleeping and still feel great(I used to have that when I was younger but with the meds im on now I cant). I told her I have rapid mood swings, racing thoughts and Irritability and so on. she kept saying that don't really matter and I have to have nights that I don't sleep and still feel good if I don't have that I don't have bipolar, do u really have to not sleep to be bipolar

[BlackSheep79]

I'm not going to diagnose, as I can't. Not sleeping and still feeling great is not the only symptom for determining if one has bipolar. Rapid mood swings and thoughts and irritability are symptoms, which I have experienced, and also experience even when I am medicated. When I am hypo I have trouble sleeping, but I will not allow myself to go without sleep because when I realize sleep is becoming a major problem I contact my pdoc. There is a list of symptoms for bipolar and we all experience everything differently. I personally would go see someone else.

[BipolaRNurse]

Even in my worst manic episodes I still get 3-4 hours of sleep. My normal is 8 so that's a big change for me. It is a myth that a bipolar diagnosis is determined by the amount of sleep one gets (or doesn't get) during an episode. Get a second opinion.

[Blue_Bird]

Keep in mind that racing thoughts are not always a sign of Bipolar Disorder. They appear in people with anxiety as well. The rapid mood swings part sounds more Borderline (BPD) which is entirely different than Bipolar. I know I bring this up a lot but they are two diagnosis's that are often mistaken for each other. Get a full evaluation from her

[raspberrytorte]

My old doc diagnosed me with bp2, but the pnp I'm currently seeing said my symptoms are all just severe anxiety. She even said my psychosis end of january was just caused by severe anxiety. I had never heard of psychotic anxiety before. Who knows. Every doc has their own opinion.

[tomboy2011]

I do also have borderline the pdoc I had before her did a test on me to find out what I had. I do have other symptoms of bipolar to

[raspberrytorte]

Oh, and during that time I was getting about two hours of sleep a night and didn't feel tired at all.

[UCMATH]

It's not true that manic people don't sleep at all, but we do tend to run on far less sleep than the average person. I was in a psych hospital with a disgnosis of 296.44 Bipolar I Disorder, Most Recent Episode Manic, Severe With Psychotic Features and usually managed to get 2 to 4 hours of broken sleep.

Plenty of people go months or years without an episode. When people talk about rapid mood swings in Bipolar, they mean that the patient has 4 or more mood episodes in a calendar year. There are very few people who have ultraradian mood swings, but it's happened before. When people have rapid mood swings in a very short period of time, pdocs generally suspect borderline rather than bipolar.