[Leah281]

For a long time in my life I had problems with low energy and feeling low about myself. I would have periods of thinking bad about myself and going into crying spells but then having periods of normalcy that were somewhat short. In these times I thought about suicide but didn't try to carry it out. I would also have periods where I was very angry and hollered at people and did things that I was downright ashamed that I had done the day after. For most of my life I felt I was seriously defective as if something was wrong with me. So I was always trying to find ways to cure my wrongness. I began doing self help readings that helped me get to a point like positive thinking and trying to become conscious of my behavior. Then I learned about another type of self help that really encouraged me. I became hopeful that my life could change and that maybe I wasn't the ultimate screw-up that I had always thought I was. I believe I felt this way because of how people treated me. It seemed I was always messing up things or getting into trouble of some sort. Well as I took on the self-help methods things started changing for me. I had increased productivity. And I was getting more done in my personal life and work, in other things. But what began to happen is that I started trying to take on too much. I began doing things all of the time and going with little sleep for days. Then I began to become terribly irritable. I think because I wasn't getting sleep. But over and over again I began getting in this type of cycle. Well I recently had an incident where I got into this increased activity but I wasn't able to continue in being as productive I had in previous times and I crashed hard. Emotionally I was distraught. It seemed that all of the previous self-help even fell apart. Everything that I learned to help me be stable and cope with my emotions seemed to fall apart. Before I knew it I was back into the crying times and feeling very low. I've gone back to saying really harsh things to people that I had learned not to say. This was a problem that kept me from keeping friends. Sometimes I talk in ways that seems confusing and doesn't make sense. Seems I have a hard time keeping my thought organized or flowing so that I'm not trying to say like 3 different things at one time. Now I'm becoming a little doubtful that I can make permanent changes. I saw a psychiatrist. The doc, diagnosed me as Cyclothymic with Obsessive Compulsive tendencies. I've read up on the Cyclothymia and see some of the symptoms but wonder if there is some ADD that has previously caused me to get into trouble and make some of the mistakes I've made in the past. My question is to anyone if you've possibly been misdiagnosed for bipolar or Cyclothymia and were ADD or something else.

[girlN]

i have heard of bipolar being misdiagnosed as ADD but not the other way around but i'm sure it is possible but being a 5 year veteran of the bipolar game you sure do sound bipolar to me. i encourage you to look up as much as you can about bipolar, ADD, and Cyclothymia. I think to really be able to accept a diagnosis and an illness you must understand it and don't take it as an end to who you "thought" you were. best wishes and hope your DR. is not misdiagnosing you.