Bi-polar or not?!

Bi-polar or not?

I was diagnosed bi-polar around 1997 or so. I was also in a bad marriage . Yes, i had the highs , lows, etc...
From then i would say 'yes' i am bipolar.
Now lets skip to 2007. After a very messy divorce , living on my own and finding myself, getting another job, then later remarrying the most wonderful man on earth. (since 2000)
I am off all med and have been for the last 3 years.
I have no cycling, no mania, no nothing like it was when i was sick. My dr did tell me if stress came back, it could put it all back in motion.
Well i did go through some horrible stress two years ago.And i made it through that without crashing.
I feel like the old me calm, happy,collected and content... Since I am home, i dont really have any problems with anything now. I do have a mild depression around my period, which is tolerable.The only thing i still fight anxiety attacks, (which look like full blown seizures, but arent). I wonder has a prayer for deliverance work, or was i never really bi-polar

1 week ago
to curious_boricua_soul..

I too tried the anti-depressants. Kind of like you I realized anti-depressants were not the thing for me. They worked too a point, but when you get off of them, everything you thought that was 'magically' fixed isn't. When i learned how to deal with things and learn to let the things I couldn't fix go away, is when i started getting better.
Anti-depressants just hide things, they don't fix them. (and years ago, had someone told me the above, I well would of argued until I was blue in the face with them.)

People who truly have bipolar disorder are essentially 100% guaranteed to have another manic episode in their lifetime. In other words, it is almost certain their episodes will be a recurring pattern, rather than starting and then going away.

However, one must realize that the diagnosis of bipolar disorder had become (and still is) considered quite sexy in the mental health field. In reality, defining a manic episode is very, very difficult, and diagnosing bipolar disorder is even more so.

However, it is common practice to see mental health clinicians hear the phrase "mood swings" and automatically write down "bipolar disorder." It is even more disheartening to see clinicians describe people as "she's really bipolar" or "he's kind of manicky," both of which are vague and pejorative.

In reality, manic episodes are defined not as "mood swings" or irritability," but PERSISTENT and ABNORMAL mood states that last for more than 7 days. A person with mood swings feels intensely sad one minute, than intensely happy the next, then angry a few minutes later. This is not a manic episode.

In a manic episode, a person has a PERSISTENT mood state--they aren't mad one minute, then happy the next. The get happy and they get stuck there. They are constantly, annoyingly and repetitively happy, no matter what the circumstances, and this goes on not for minutes or hours, but days, weeks and up to a few months WITHOUT A BREAK. Most people can't even imagine how crazy this must look.

Even normal people have "mood swings." These are not automatically an indicator of mania--they are seen in normal people, normal stress, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, substance use disorders and basically any disorder. In fact, because "mood swings" do not even differentiate between ordinary people and those with mental disorders, you could make a good argument for mood swings as being completely irrelevant.

In short, there is no way to tell you how likely you are to have bipolar disorder. If you do have it, I would expect and plan on recurrences in the future. These are not always frequent--many people have episodes separated by years, sometimes decades. On the other hand, the fact that you are symptom free without treatment and that your symptoms occurred during a time of stress are at least two pieces of evidence that you may not have bipolar disorder.


As always, discuss these and any questions with your doctor.