[twist293]

One of my close friends has really started acting differently lately. I've only noticed it since around the beginning of this year. We graduated high school last June and we're both going to the same university now. While I used my fall semester to finish up things at the community college, my friend started at the university. So this spring semester is my first semester up there and his second.

I'm not sure if he started acting like this last semester or if it just now started, but lately he's started to act a little odd. During the fall, the two of us (often with other friends) would hang out on the weekends or on nights that he was home (the university is an hour away from our homes). He has always had a temper and isn't afraid to speak his mind, but lately he's doing less of that and acting more belligerent.

I drive to school and he stays in a suite/dorm on campus. We sometimes meet up at school and hang out or do work together (we're in the same chemistry lab). He argues with a lot of the stuff I say now. At first, I thought nothing of it, but then I started to notice it more and more. It's like every time I say anything, he's got to prove it wrong or say some statement that brings down whatever I say. It doesn't offend me or anything, but it's starting to get old.

Spring break was about three weeks ago and I went with this friend and another friend to the beach. The three of us stayed in a hotel for three days and by day three I was beyond ready to go home. He literally argued with both of us over every thing and it was really starting to piss me off.

The thing that makes me wonder now is how he's started kind of closing up. He doesn't really laugh at any jokes anymore. He hasn't had a girlfriend since like middle school or freshman year of high school and he doesn't even look at girls. Instead he just disses my girlfriend or any girl that my other friend talks to. Anytime anybody does anything fun or has a crowd in an uproar, he snarls his nose up and shakes his head in disgust like a grouch.

Here's an example, at the beach we ate at Joe's Crab Shack. A certain song came on and this random guy started clapping his hands and made a line of spring breakers that marched around the restaurant, laughing and having a good time. My friend snarled his nose up and all but put his head down like he couldn't stand the fact that people were actually having fun.

He's always unkept now. I don't think he brushes his teeth and his hairs all grown out and his beard is getting longer and longer and it's all unkept looking. All he does aside from school work is play WoW and League of Legends. Even when he does that he's very short tempered and acts like an @$$ hole to everybody. If it isn't those games, he's playing some game on his iPhone. He buries his face in it and shuts out the rest of the world all day.

Are these early/late signs of depression in my friend? If so, what can I do to help him out? I should probably include that he is bipolar, ADHD, and dyslexic. He's taken several different medications overtime, but I think he quit most of them at the university.

[kaliope]

if he is off his meds, it is probably his bipolar acting up. anger is associated with bipolar. withdrawal, isolation, loss of interest in activities are signs of depression. talk to him and let him know you are worried. be prepared for him not to respond appropriately though. bipolars always think they are coping just fine. take care.