bipolar

I've never considered being bipolar until a therapist in a french support group mentionned it recently. She doesn't want to go any further into this and asked me to see my doc, which i'm gonna do, but in the meantime i wonder whether she could be right or not.

basically I went through the same cycles over and over for the past 7 years: I'm really depressed for 2-3 months, during this period i'm usually suicidal for 2-3 weeks, then without reasons my moods starts improving. About 2 weeks later i feel great and believe i will never relapse, that nothing can hurt me. This last for 1-2 months before i finally relapse and the whole cycle starts again...

Until now i've only been diagnosed depression as every time I'd feel better i would stop what ever meds or therapy i was having and find a new doc at each relapse or would not seek any help at all. Anyway whether i had a treatment or not the cycles stayed exactly the same...

Sounds alot like bipolar....I was treated for major depression for over a year before dx bipolar.
Make an apt with a pdoc.....antidepresseants made things worse for me.....best to be dx'd and treated properly.
good luck and welcome

Thanks, the problem is there's a waiting list to see a pdoc here, so I've got to wait until i'm back to uni before i can see one.

I had to wait 2months before seeing a pdoc,and I was dangerously depressed.Waiting sucks but hell,youve already waited this long eh?
One day at a time I guess.

exactly, for now i take a day at a time and in september i'll get an appt asap. I've been living with this for so long anyway i can wait a coule more months.

Welcome to PC...

BP I think is a slippery little thing...pdoc really can help you figure it ...in the meantime...PC has some great resources including this forum...

For the last couple days I kept trying to come to terms with the fact that i might be bipolar... but i keep wondering: how could i be if I never noticed any of the mania or hypomania phases? I mean, I usualy just feel like I'm fine, and that I won't need any more help, but that's normal, isn't it?
This is so weird because when i was at high school, the school counsellor knew about my mood swings and she tried to find external factors. So how come she never said it might be bipolar? She didn't even say I might need and meds, therapy would be enough according to her. I can't believe she was wrong, I mean she's the one who helped me most for years, she knew me so well... was I wrong to trust her so much?

I know you trusted your school counselor.....theres nothing wrong with that.Mood swings can mean alot of things not just bp.
Bp runs in my family,I didnt think I had it because I dont get the anger like them.I too can be very "normal"and then CRASH Im depressed.My depression is as severe as my family members.....one of which is bp 1.
Maybe your not bp.....maybe its something else.Until you know for sure dont get too worked up.....you'll have plenty of time to wrap your head around it later.
In the meantime stay away from alcohol and keep a journal....over time you may see a pattern....
Good luck jordy

I know i shouldn't think this much about it until I know for sure, especially as I don't know if it runs in my family. Actually I don't think so, I guess i would have noticed...
I've already tried keeping a journal, but i never to do so for more than a few weeks. Anyway with my school counsellor we really tried to find a pattern, but nothing really showed up apart the time spans between two mood swings which are always the similar.

Right now I'd only like to know what's wrong and treat it asap... My riding instructor made some fun of me today, I knew he didn't mean it but it was still painful....