Recently Diagnosed as Bipolar II, Questioning Diagnosis?

Hi there,
I have recently been diagnosed as Bipolar II. I have struggled with my mental health for many years now but it was not until after a crisis that I had received an actual diagnosis. I also was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety and PTSD.
Anyway my main question had to do with hypomania. I have always suffered from moderate to severe depression over the years but I can not quite pinpoint which experiences are hypomanic or not. I have always seen some of the following qualities as just my personality, but I was hoping to get the opinions of others who have been diagnosed with Bipolar.
The first thing that stood out the most to the psychiatrist was my irritability. I go through a period of time where almost anything can set me off. Whether I am being asked to many questions or there are too many people around me, it causes my blood to boil! The amount of times I have screamed and yelled at my family members, friends or boyfriend over nothing really are countless and very unfortunate.
Another situation is I can make very impulsive decisions and I almost become obsessed with them. In the past this was usually taking part in risky sex, now I tend to do things more like deciding to take a trip to Australia. I spent hours and hours looking online for people looking for house sitters and I checked plane ticket prices and my bank account. I was extremely excited about it being a possibility and talked non stop about it to my boyfriend. He obviously tried to talk some sense into me, which only made me extremely mad and misunderstood. I always just assumed I was spontaneous and adventurous and he was more of a planning type. This is only one example of my desire to go on a spontaneous trip. Another example was when I wanted to join my university field hockey team. I practiced day in and day out and watched multiple videos online and tutorials. I emailed the coaches and the team members and I was so happy and excited to join, like ecstatic. I almost spent money on a membership for the rec team, which I cannot afford at all. Then one day I just woke up and I was depressed and anxious and realized that I dont even want to join field hockey and was no longer excited about it.
Somedays I do wake up with a lot of energy and I am really motivated to get things done, but I never saw this out of the ordinary. My friends have noticed me talking fast, loud and jumping from one idea to the next in the past but I haven't noticed myself. I go through phases of creativity as well, where I tend to write and draw all hours of the night but I snap out of it by the next morning. I also go through periods of not eating at all, usually when I am depressed and then binge eating when I am happier. Lastly, my sex drive definitely increases randomly at times. I go through phases where all I want to do is jump my boyfriends bones all hours of the day. During all of these times I do feel alot more confidant in myself and a lot less anxious.
In conclusion, I was just hoping to get some opinions from others on whether these seem like hypomanic symptoms. These tend to last anywhere from a few days to a week or two but no longer than that. Then I seem to be back to being anxious and depressed.
I was hoping to hear about everyones hypomanic symptoms as well.
Thanks for reading my post !

Welcome home. You will like it here

Thanks for sharing, you have described hypomania perfectly.
Is your drug mix helping at all?

I have always felt that my mood disorder combines with my natural underlying personality, and I believe this is true for everyone with a mood disorder. You are most definitely you, but reckless, unsafe and/or impulsive behavior can hinder your life experience.

For example chances are that you truly would like to take a trip to Australia and that you truly are adventurous. Where BP throws a wrench in things is that, rather than being able to carefully plan, talk things over calmly with your partner, and take your time feeling out the situation, hypomania and mania can make you just rush aggressively into it without considering important things, and so on.

So rest assured that, again, you are definitely you, and you do have your own unique personality. Mood disorders just sort of throw wrenches into the mix, sometimes very big wrenches, but just wrenches none the less.

Applause. So true.

You have indeed described hypomania very well. I think the diagnosis of bipolar 2 fits you perfectly. I know what it is to question a diagnosis, in fact I wasn't sure I wasn't merely having an existential crisis instead of bipolar. But part of the problem with having bipolar is sometimes we can't see that we're ill, even though it's obvious to everyone else. It's called anosognosia.

At any rate, my denial went away when I was diagnosed bipolar 1 last year (previously I'd been bipolar not otherwise specified) and now I just deal with it, take my meds and see my pdoc when I'm supposed to. As a result I am much more stable and reasonably content. No screaming fits in the pouring rain, no thousand-dollar spending sprees in Walmart, no thinking up crazy ideas in the middle of the night, like leaving everything and everyone we know and moving to Mexico or some other place that has no winter.

It gets better. Accepting the diagnosis helps. Best of luck to you on your journey.

Thank you for welcoming me, this website has definitely helped me with my many questions! I have not started on medication yet only because I was scared too, I wanted to do more research on the mix I was prescribed which was lamotrigine and abilify.

Thanks everyone for your responses! Your opinions have been very helpful and I appreciate them

KirssB13 thanks for taking the time to post this. I received a diagnosis of bi polar, nothing more specific yet, earlier today. When I told my husband he already knew this but for me it was a shock. I knew I was depressed but had no idea that I´d been having manic episodes too until last night when I followed a thread on here and everything fell into place. After years of having it, I can only really in the past 24 hours accept it but reading your post did make me chuckle!

Nearly everything you wrote resonated with me so much. I´m so glad I found this place, you guys are really helping me. Thanks xx

I found it hard to accept my diagnosis, because for so long I just thought it was just my real personality coming to the fore. That I just had a lack of self control, that i wanted to have sex with anyone that showed a level of care, that it wasn't really all that irrational to spend thousands of dollars on things, because I had done the research and rationalized it in my mind. It wasn't until after my divorce that I was diagnosed with bipolar. I still didn't believe it. And my mediations at the time, lithium, sodium valporate, Meloril and an antidepressant didn't really help. Sure they made me more stable, but the irrational, irresponsible behavior continued. I met someone online, became 'friends' with them, planned a trip, had them fly out from the USA and then got half way around Australia with them before I realized what I was doing and

Possible trigger:

tried to commit suicide

. I put them on a plane, send them home and came back to where I used to live. I then tried to have an affair with the family that took me in.

Possible trigger:

That lead to yet another suicide attempt

. I moved in with my parents and they helped me put my life back together. I moved out from there, and within months

Possible trigger:

tried yet again to commit suicide

. I finally had to realize that I did indeed have something wrong, although still thinking I was just a weak and bad person. It took me years to accept my diagnosis.

Now I am somewhat stable. I do mess with my medications. I struggle with submitting to drugs. I want to be stronger than the bipolar. Truth is I am not. And the cost of not staying stable, I can only work sometimes, have real difficulties maintaining friendships, can only work when I am up, and still cycle, both on a weekly basis, and monthly basis, and that's with medication. I'd hate to see where I would go and what I would do again without medication.

And I think I have totally strayed from the reason for my post. Sorry

xXx