Father neglecting illness

I am visiting my father for Christmas. I knew he had been diagnosed with narcissistic and borderline personality disorder and also with depression and anxiety. When I first had the idea that I might be bipolar I called him to ask if he knew hypomanic states as well as depression- He said yes. Now we had a longer conversation about it and I asked him about his symptoms. He fulfills every symptom of bipolar II. He told me about ideas of grandeur, goal directed activity, less need for sleep for months, increased conflicts and spending ,irritability and aggression. When I told him that my t thinks it is pretty probable that I am bipolar II he said that he for sure was not bipolar and that I wasn't either.

He said that because he said he feels the pschological dependency for hypomanic states when he is depressed and that therefore there was no metabolic reason for he's changes of mood. He said when your depression ends with you becoming hypomanic to fight depression and when hypomania ends with you being depressed because your batteries are empty then this is not bipolar.

But that is exactly what I understood bipolar to be. He thinks bipolar is just manic-depressed. He studied psychology -.-

I think he is in denial. I want my family to support me, because I think I would be doing way better with mood-stabilizers and I would be happy to finally know what is wrong with me. Bipolar seems to be an explanation.

What to you think about his argumentation?

sorry for the poor english, the keyboard changed my writing partly and i am in a hurry

I agree with you dad in a sense if it doesn't affect your everyday life then I don't think he'd need mood stabilizers. Just be sure you need them first because they all suck. That is all I am going to say.

If YOU think you might be, it wouldn't hurt to speak with a counselor about it, because a counselor isn't going to just automatically prescribe (they can't anyway). They will talk you through it, say hmm... that sounds like it could be this... and then send you to a shrink who will prescribe, if necessary.

That's exactly what I did. I saw a therapist who, after 2 sessions, referred me to a psychiatrist.

She told me she couldn't diagnose anything, but she said that (in her opinion) I clearly had ADHD. However, she couldn't "detect" bipolar disorder because usually that takes months of observation. However, you can still have a discussion with the therapist/counselor about it.

Yep, I am seeing a psychdoch and a therapist. They say I might be bipolar, have adhd or bdp. Most probably I am bipolar.

That is why I wanted to know about my dad, for the genetic factors. They don't give me mood stabilizers yet, cause they wanna know more about me before giving me meds.

Oh and concerning my dad: It DOES definitely affect his everyday life. He just spent three months depressed on the couch and quit work. Now he is back.

Definitely should seek help!