Posted by zefdie on April 22, 2004, at 13:24:52
Hey all-
Yesterday my therapist told me that the results of a checklist she had me fill out indicated that I have many symptoms of bipolar disorder. I've been depressed and moody my whole life, but I've always ruled out bipolar disorder because the highs I experience are very infrequent and last very short periods. I guess I've always been under the impression that "mania" is a much more severe and serious thing than the brief periods of self-assuredness and energy that I feel. I've never felt out-of-conrol or grandiose at all. I just feel happy and tend to go on unreasonable shopping sprees. The rest of the time I'm just extremely tired, extremely depressed, and extremely hopeless, which is why I've always seen myself as a chronic depressive. I'm almost ALWAYS sad.
Does anyone care to share bipolar experiences with me or direct me to detailed information and checklists? I've been reading about bipolar on the online support groups and societies' websites but all of this just confuses me more--I don't know if I fit this definition or not and it seems like it's been increasingly overdiagnosed in the last decade, so I want to be careful.
By the way, I'm going to be seeing a meds-only psychiatrist soon in addition to my therapist, but I couldn't get an appointment until May. Right now I'm taking Effexor XR 75 mg and suffering debilitating fatigue from it.
poster:zefdie
thread:338839
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040419/msgs/338839.html