[Wanderlust90]

I have conflicting diagnosies, bipolar spectrum disorder, & depression & anxiety. I'm interested to find out if anyone who has a bipolar 2 disorder diagnosis has experienced auditory hallucinations? This is something that happened to me when I was very stressed out about work & not sleeping well. I felt depressed & unsafe but I was very agitated & kept hearing an unknown woman's voice telling me I was stupid. Could this be a part of bipolar, like a mixed state, or depression with psychotic symptoms? I have never been manic, taking 40mg fluoxetine daily.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

No. The presence of psychosis would automatically mean BP1. But I'm not sure that hearing a voice when very stressed necessarily means that is going to happen again for you. It may just be a fluke.

If you are only on fluoxetine then you may need a mood stabilizer added to help prevent further weirdness. You should definitely bring this up to your dr. at the next visit and be aware of anything else weird and whether it only happens when you are under a lot of stress or if it is more consistent.

[HeavyMetalLover]

[QUOTE=BeyondtheRainbow;4675256]No. The presence of psychosis would automatically mean BP1. But I'm not sure that hearing a voice when very stressed necessarily means that is going to happen again for you. It may just be a fluke.

If you are only on fluoxetine then you may need a mood stabilizer added to help prevent further weirdness. You should definitely bring this up to your dr. at the next visit and be aware of anything else weird and whether it only happens when you are under a lot of stress or if it is more consistent.[/QUOTE

I absolutely agree with this. It may help to keep track of it, like maybe keep a written record of what you hear, when, what preceded it, what mood you were in when it occurred, what time of day was it,etc. That way you can see if there's a pattern that develops with it or is it just random.

[Wanderlust90]

I've started a mood diary to track symptoms & possible triggers. I should mention that I had stopped taking lithium around this time also, not sure if that was actually the cause of the voices.

I'm not sure if I become a little paranoid at times, feeling as though I'm being punished by the world by being forced to work against my will. I often feel as if I present much better than I actually feel, so my family & friends don't even grasp the gravity of the situation but I become very unsafe when feeling like this is, with the combination of depression & agitation. But lithium made me feel depressed after an initial improvement??? Maybe lamictal?

[Trippin2.0]

It is quite common actually, just take a poll.


I was hospitalized for my first crippling auditory hallucinations as my pdoc wanted to add risperdal to my cocktail...


Cited "BP2 featuring psychotic depression", or some shyt like that.


I will never forget how shocked I felt when I read that.


Anyway, I've seen LOTS of doctors, nobody has ever changed my dx, and I think that's because they're realizing this beast is a spectrum and it's not all neat and tidy like they first suspected.


Geez a year or two ago a mixed episode would've gotten u a type 1 dx, now they're acknowledging mixed episodes occur in type 2 as well.


Anyway, just from reading on this forum you will see that type 2's also experience hallucinations, especially when really stressed.

[faerie_moon_x]

I'm diagnosed BP2 but I have psychotic features. I also have rapid cycling mixed states all the time. I'm only diagnosed BP2 because I don't have really high levels of euphoric mania, I only have dysphoric mania and my cycles are really short but regular.

There's a lot to BP that they are still learning, liek Trippin said.

[Wanderlust90]

Faerie moon I'm fairly sure I've only really experienced dysphoric hypomania also, I may have been euphoric hypomanic but if I was my insight was impaired enough that I didn't recognise it. I could go back over everything in my past keeping in mind the symptoms of hypomania but I feel like I'm just making excuses for silly behaviour in the past, usually substance induced.

The whole bipolar spectrum is new to me, I swear when I was training to be a nurse some 7 years ago there was no such thing as bipolar 2? At least it wasn't taught at university. So I'm finding it very hard to accept the label & all of the variations in symptom expression. I do feel like it's more than just depression though.

What do your mixed states & dysphoric hypomania feel like Faerie moon?

Trippin 2.0 I know them feels, when I walked out of my first psychiatric appointment with lithium & seroquel I was in shock. It explained a lot but also raised many any more questions. The taboo of mental illness is still very widespread within healthcare & being a nurse with a potentially psychotic illness is looked upon fairly harshly in my experience.

I was diagnosed as BP2 12 years ago - so it definitely has been around. I technically have BP2 with mixed features, but I have been full blown manic requiring hospitalisation, psychosis is not something I have been diagnosed with but mixed has been popping up a lot more these days and Im inclined to blame how long it has taken to treat as to why it is so much worse now.

[faerie_moon_x]

Originally Posted by Wanderlust90

Faerie moon I'm fairly sure I've only really experienced dysphoric hypomania also, I may have been euphoric hypomanic but if I was my insight was impaired enough that I didn't recognise it. I could go back over everything in my past keeping in mind the symptoms of hypomania but I feel like I'm just making excuses for silly behaviour in the past, usually substance induced.

The whole bipolar spectrum is new to me, I swear when I was training to be a nurse some 7 years ago there was no such thing as bipolar 2? At least it wasn't taught at university. So I'm finding it very hard to accept the label & all of the variations in symptom expression. I do feel like it's more than just depression though.

What do your mixed states & dysphoric hypomania feel like Faerie moon?

Well for me my primary mania symptom is racing thoughts followed by pressured speech. I also have the whole grandiose ideas thing. Honestly, the racing thoughts never go away, even in depression. They just slow down a little bit and become more inwardly negative rather than outwardly negative. Negative thoughts are a big issue.

This is basically what I've noticed happening:
1) I start to get very annoyed and irritable with everything around me. I don't have pure insomnia but it's harder for me to go to sleep, I feel less tired. This makes things worse.

2) My irritation starts to turn into anger. My thoughts are speeding up and it's hard to think.

3) I start complaining and ranting about things, really getting on my soapbox and vocal the more my pressured speech ramps up and I become more grandiose.

4) I start having a lot of intrusive thoughts, mostly of violence. This with the racing thoughts increases my irritability further.

5) I start having "the whole world is against me" outlook. I start really focusing on paranoid thoughts and negative things happening.

6) I get very restless, my ability to focus on most things drops to 0, except I zero in on one thing and hyper focus on it. It gets harder and harder to do things like read, dial phone numbers, or hold a conversation.

7) It feels like my bones are trying to crawl out of my skin. I start having more anxiety, too. I have trouble eating or sleeping.

8) Finally I explode, like a volcano. This is often caused by a trigger, even a minor one. At this point I don't even really feel like I"m in my body, just kind of observing it from the outside. Yelling, screaming, crying, throwing things... no it's not pretty at all, and it's actually really scary and I hate it.

9) After the exploding it's like a pressure valve released. I usually feel better mood wise, but I feel extremely sick physically. My therapist has recognized that it is possibly adrenaline toxicity. It feels like someone was shaking me really hard. My muscles are sore and I have nausea and fatigue.

From what I've observed, my longer cycles are more likely to end in an explosion. Or, if I'm cycling faster, I'm more likely to explode the next time I switch from depression to mania. My last explosion I went to the hospital but they turned me away because I'm not in the "system." I've been doing this by myself for a long time.

[*Laurie*]

In my experience, a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder 2 can have psychotic features. I'm diagnosed BP2 and I have delusions at times, plus it seems to me my paranoia is getting worse. As for voices, I'm confused about that myself. I have a whole group of voices, some kind, some mean, and some really threatening & they make lots of noise in my mind. In addition, I oftentimes hear music playing relentlessly in my mind, looping and such. I'm on Geodon and Seroquel (AP's).

I dunno...I kind of think of BP2 as a somewhat mellower version of BP1....sort-of.

Stress and sleep loss makes every diagnosis worse.

[DysphoricManicMom]

Im bipolar 2 and have experienced delusions...and dont know if seeing demonic faces in the dark/with ur eyes closed counts as hallucinations but I have done that too.

I experience hypomania precisely as faerie moon does

[*Laurie*]

The thing is, it seems there is a range within psychosis itself. I know that when I've spoken with p-docs about my delusions or the possibility of audio-type hallucinations, they seemed to focus on how much of an awareness I had regarding the 'reality' of the stuff I was experiencing. It seemed to me they were trying to decide whether I fell into the BP1 or BP 2 category, then they decided BP2 when I expressed being pretty sure my delusions/hallucinations were not real...or at least, were not what society would call 'real'. Yet, the psychotic stuff still bothers me and causes problems in my life.

[Wanderlust90]

Faerie moon. I'm sorry to hear that you experience this but it's scary how similar my experiences are. I have not had an "explosion" as such but instead turn on myself. I think because in my head no one cares anyway they just think I'm being difficult.

LauraBeth this woman's voice was distinct from my inner dialogue/jumble of random thoughts, it felt like I actually heard it with my ears. & I often have songs looping amongst that dialoge.

[*Laurie*]

I guess the 'hearing it with your ears' is what makes it a true psychotic symptom. I dunno...the whole thing gets really confusing.