My doctor thinks I might be bipolar...

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, so thanks for reading.

I've dealt with (what I thought was) anxiety and depression since my late teens. Since then, I've been prescribed numerous SSRIs and other anti depressants. My first bout of medication (when I was about 18 - now 27 years old) was largely to treat anxiety. My anxiety dropped quite significantly when I was about 23, but I was still dealing with depression.

Fast forward to the last year. My depression has become pretty bad, and I've become quite listless. My new pdoc prescribed me a number of new anti depressants which I had never had before. These included Wellbutrin, Venlafaxine, and Mirtazapine (Mirtazapine was in combination with the other two).

The strangest thing would happen when I was given a new medication or upped the dosage.

For about a week, I would feel great. I would be supremely confident, upbeat and chatty. The life of the party. Then suddenly, after the first week, my mood would drop and I would feel worse than before.

What's more, upping the dosage of the Venlafaxine and Wellbutrin made me feel awful. When I was upped to 75mg of the Wellbutrin (to replicate those feelings I had in my first week), I felt truly terrible, and almost unable to have the smallest conversation. My mind was racing and my anxiety was sky high.

My doctor suggested that there was a change I was bipolar because of my resistance to medication. I did a bit of research, and it turns out that anti-depressants can send those with bipolar into mania - which would explain my feelings during the first week of medication.

I never thought I had mania (which I was I wrote off bipolar disorder about 18 when I started researching depression), but I learned that these can be very subtle. And if I'm honest, I do have periods where I sometimes speak fast and seem a bit 'wacky'. I always thought this was just a quirk of my personality, though.

Does my experience share any similarities to yours? Do you recognise any of these signs?

I'm seeing a new pdoc for a long psychiatric evaluation in a week.

Thanks for reading.

No one here can diagnose you of course but you have some symptoms of Bipolar.

There is a lot of people that react with symptoms after taking a AD. medicational spark of bipolar symptoms isn’t “ true” Bipolar generally. You don’t want the label unless you really have it.

Only a Pdoc can really help you unravel your symptoms.

One more thing .... when was your last physical with full blood work ? Thyroid problems can often be mistaken for mental illness, best to always rule out any physical conditions.

Hope you find out what’s going on