The Bipolar II Misdiagnosis Problem

By Deborah Tuesday, September 25, 2007

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Twelve years ago I was diagnosed with depression. I was told an antidepressant and psychotherapy would fix me right within two years. When I didn't get better I started to wonder whether this diagnosis was accurate, but the doctors I saw over the years all assured me that unipolar (major depression) was my problem. Then earlier this year (2007) a clinical psychologist I was seeing suggested that it would be worth my while to be assessed for bipolar disorder.

So, I did some research and every book I read on bipolar disorder was like reading a biography of my own life. I am yet to receive the official diagnosis, but I'm reasonably sure that I have developed Bipolar II some time over the last twenty-four years and the reason I haven't been getting better (if anything my condition has deteriorated over the last five years or so) is because I have been treated with an antidepressant, which only makes the problem worse.

So I have taken the clinical psychologist's advice (a big thank you to clinical psychologist, Vanessa Inglis at Rooty Hill in Sydney) and approached the Black Dog Institute at the University of NSW in Sydney, for a diagnostic assessment.

From what I've read, my story is very common because Bipolar II is harder to diagnose than other mood disorders. One reason for this is that the person with Bipolar II only seeks medical treatment when depressed. Who consults a doctor when they are feeling good? When I am experiencing an episode of hypomania I feel great, I'm energised, highly productive and creative--I saw no need to consult a doctor when I was feeling this way. Furthermore, some of the behaviours associated with hypomania (over spending, risky sexual behaviours, indecisiveness/poor judgement) are embarrassing to fess up to and the sufferer of Bipolar II may be very reluctant to talk about them (I know I was). But the medical professional is becoming increasingly aware of the Bipolar II misdiagnosis problem and let's hope that future sufferers of Bipolar II will not have to endure the years of ineffective treatment that so many of today's sufferers of this complex mood disorder have had to endure.

Comments (5) | Add comment

hollyz

9/25/07 2:38pm

Dear Deborah,

Thank you for sharing your experience on the bipolar connection. I am sure that many of our community members will to your story and perhaps others will recognize that they too have been misdiagnosed.

Best of Luck!

Holly

Ice Queen

9/26/07 5:06pm

I to like yourself was told by my doctor that i had unipolar and was sent straight to a counciler after 5 months of that i was no better so my doctor decided that maybe it was best for me to have some antidepressants which i told him in no uncertain terms where to put them (i now know that was because i was having a hypomanic episode.) So then i went to see another doctor who told me i had ADHD but i didn't belive that for 1 minuet, it just didn't fit me some how. So i was sent for psychotherapy which seemed to work for all of 5 days then i was back to square 1. After some more years passed and seeing more doctors i got told that maybe i was an attention seeker don't think so. Then someone said to me about bipolar II and like you when i read up about it i thought this is me down to a tea it all fits. So i mayed appointment to see a specalist in bipolar and in august of this year i got diganosed with bipolar II. it sounds like your on the right path. I hope that things work out for you.

Anonymous

5/24/09 9:41am

Hi,

I have stumbled across this site, read a bit and just simply wanted to express my 'journey' so far..I have previously been diagnosed with bipolar II disorder but sadly like alot of other mental health patients based over 3 visits only and observations of my 'present presentation' to the admission nurse initially which was wrongfully 'observed' by them, subsequently the then treating psychiatrist reading (trusting ??) their collegues notes of me, also made their own observations of me and 'clinically' rather than 'personalably' with full understanding of the facts surrounding my particular case, of which they only had part, made a 'snap diagnosis' of bipolar II which I have been living with for some years now....

Fed up and frustrated with the legal system and its processes from actually being caught up in it for some years, trying to get some form of JUSTICE against my now ex wife, who has become extremely evil for one of a better word to describe her, she currently has embarked on attacking thru her lawyer my 'so called mental health diagnosis' (read misdiagnosis !!) in a reason and her only reason she has against me, stating thru her lawyer "he's a risk in seeing our kids !!" 'I don't want him to have ANY contact !!!' ....psychotically she's even got her lawyer subpoena all my mental health case notes to justify her 'concerns' about my mind status, and build a case against sickly...my misdiagnosis which my current psychologist has questioned her self as being wrong...so bring on all the 'attack the guy with a mental condition' I liken it to stealing money from a blind guy, easy to do but a pretty low act...someone who can't back !!!

So people reading my lil private protest, amongst all this is children involved you defintely have been subjected to 'longterm mental abuse' at the hands of their Mother, sadly.

Closing, despite all the trauma that has gone on in my and our childrens lives thus far, I am actually, when well enough going to undertake the publishing of a book about my journey thus far, to do it cause I can !! and also to act as a reference for other patients.people also living with a misdiagnosis, and all that goes with it...this suggestion of a book was made to me from a former employer seriously concerned for me and the children and our then and future welfare.

As I finish my 'blurb' I am mindful of the many people reading my part, and extremely difficult, painful journey, but alas..'every cloud has a silver lining' and current school photos of my children in my bedroom serve as daily motivating visual stimulants.

Judith

1/ 7/10 7:31am

Deborah, I am very happy that you learned and found a very competent doctor. I will be 50 this year and have been trying to change my behavior (which I can recall as far back as childhood) for 30 years through counseling and medication. As you discovered, I have been getting worse over the past few years while sitting in a counselors office every other week, seeing a psychiatrist on a regular basis and going through a partial hospitalization. My hopelessness and tendency to want to harm myself and die are related to my frustration with myself and how others perceive me as much as the disease I am also convinced I have - Bipolar II. Ironically, my husband's counselor/psychologist is wondering if he is living with a bipolar wife. That prompted me to investigate once again. I am finding more information that ever before. Like you said, it's a description of my life when I read about bipolar II. I have told countless social workers and psychiatrists "I have something wrong in my brain", "It's a generational thing and I don't know how to help my daughter". I can do a family tree of who was effected but never diagnosed and I have been telling them that also. I have muscle twitching and fatique for years! I never got hooked up with the things I needed by the social worker and I discovered he really didn't seem to understand bipolar at all. I have asked so family physicians, psychiatrists, counselors about bipolar and I have always been reassured that I was depressed and/or anxious. Good luck to you, me and all you reach through you writing.

mark

11/15/11 2:38am

Very helpful people. I was diagnosed with depression/GAD at age 25 and (re) diagnosed with BP2 at age 48. I often think back to the hypomanic phases, and realize that the reason I didn't go to the doctor was because I thought these actions were character flaws and things like the hypersexual behavior were a moral problem. From time to time (I must admit) I get angry. Mainly due to my last failed relationships rejection of me after the diagnosis, and my now limited time with my young boys. It was acceptable for me to have depression, just not bipolar (any type). That was her last straw with me. I thought my anger and behaviors were valid, and would be proven out. Repairing your relationships often come too late, and no pills will fix it. I guess I am not so angry about the BP2, just not being able to be proactive about it. I often wonder what life would have been like living with my wife and kids, instead of this marginal life with visitation. It has crossed my mind to only take the antidepressants so I could at least feel something. Lose your family...what do you have to lose? We live in a world where we are strictly pass or fail. And all the laws we have on the books cannot enforce what exists in peoples hearts. Rarely enforced, they are designed to keep us quiet. And they do.

The Bipolar II Misdiagnosis Problem

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