Diagnosing bipolar disorder

By tbachtem Thursday, October 11, 2007

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I was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder.It took doctors ten years of treating my symptoms seperately to final get a doctor,the one I have now,to put them all together and figure out that I was bipolar.I am curious to know if ten years is the norm,or if I just dealt with the wrong doctors.I even suspected that I had it even before my doctor confirmed it.

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TryingHard

10/11/07 5:43pm

My doctor told me that the average time it takes for a correct diagnosis of bipolar disorder is 7 - 10 years. She said that it's partially because people tend to seek help for depressive symptoms so doctors don't see the manic/hypomanic side of the coin. For myself the depression is the major problem ... hypomania/mania show up infrequently.

tbachtem

10/11/07 7:04pm

Thankyou,I'm the same myself.I had many years of depression and I get hypomanic not manic episodes.

Eric

10/12/07 7:29am

I’m not sure where they get that number because usually the course of events of being diagnosed bipolar comes when it becomes unmanageable. I knew I was different (An alien) around 17 and the illness was manageable and sometimes a blessing until age 29. Prior to that age I had received no treatment for the illness and as my grandmother used to put it “that’s what makes you special”.

You say up until your diagnoses doctors were treating the symptoms. After being diagnosed bipolar/rapid cycle, I had to go through three psychiatrists to finally get one that made a difference. What made his approach different? He never treated my illness (being bipolar) but treated how I felt. Medications were never based on therapeutic levels but more on how I was feeling. His approach and still is…less is more, meaning he didn’t agree with the main establishment of over medicating based on what the books said.

Each person is different and treatments should be based on the individual…not being bipolar.

su1

10/19/07 12:48pm

My psychiatrist also uses the 'less is more' approach, especially since I am so sensitive to all the meds - I had been treated for depression for a couple yrs before one SSRI threw me into psychotic mania, and that's when they realized "oh, I guess she has Bipolar". I can now recognize that I indeed have had periods of hypomania since age 15, but was not correctly diagnosed until age 32, because the depression was much more prevalent and troublesome, whereas I think for a lot of us with BD, the manic side stays within a functional range for many yrs (and even seems to provide us advantages, like being the 'life of the party', being extra-productive at work and doing more in the bedroom!) and a lot of these 'symptoms' are seen as a plus, not a problem. Since bipolar disorder occurs in only 2-3% of people, whereas depression occurs in 20% of people, I think screening for bipolar is often overlooked by doctors, as well, unfortunately. Plus the fact that even once we are properly diagnosed, the meds are quite heavy & often take a long time to find the right combination. Meanwhile, (as with my experience, having been off work for 2 yrs now since my diagnosis), the 'meds' seem to cause as many problems as the ones they fix, so I can't work anyways, for the time being. It's kind of a pet peeve of mine when they say BD is 'very treatable' - yeah, I'm getting 'treated' but I'm still off work, so how is this supposed to make me better? I know it will come with time & I am progressing, albeit slowly, but I wonder if doctors resist diagnosing people as having BD because the treatments themselves aren't exactly a quick fix. In fact, sometimes, the diagnosis feels like a life sentence. I don't mean to be so negative, but I just feel so discouraged that I can't just get better. Yes, I'm doing better than I was a year ago, but my life is still completely on hold for now. One thing that comforts me is when my aunt told me "This illness didn't happen overnight, and so it's not going to go away overnight, either" which also helped give me perspective when I had my back problems for 4 yrs (and I am proud and happy to say my back is all better now), so I do have faith that I will continue to progress with my BD, too, and someday be well again.

Anonymous

10/13/07 10:57pm

Hello tbachtem,

I don't know that there is any set timeframe for any given person on how long it takes to be accurately diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As Eric stated, each person is individual and should be treated as an individual, not as a diagnosis.

I was hospitalzed at the age of 26 for a suicide attempt and very quickly began showing signs of hypomania and mania, while hospitalized. Prior to this hospitalization, I was told various things by mental health professionals: 1) I drank too much wine; 2) I had a histrionic personality disorder; 3) I just needed to love and be loved; 4) I was very obsessive-compulsive; 5) I was a perfectionist; 6) I had more energy than most kids my age. It wasn't until my hospitalization at the age of 26 that I was diagnosed with manic-depressive disorder (what we now call bipolar). I had shown periods of depression and mania since I was 17, but it was never labeled as bipolar until my hospitalization at the age of 26.

For me, the diagnosis meant being placed on a whole host of psychotropic drugs, which pretty much knocked me on my ***. All that wonderful, sparkling energy that I had, soon went down the tubes in the form of a drugged stupor. I remained in the hospital for two and a half months, until my psychologist had finally seen enough and told my psychiatrist to get me the hell out of the there before I rotted away like a cavity in a tooth.

Don't let the diagnosis be the defining moment of who and what you are. You are so much more than your diagnosis. In my case, the diagnosis was used as a reason to drug me up, until I became but a shadow of my former self. Thank God I had a psychologist who was not into the mind set that everyone needed medications to squelch their high energy levels.

I eventually got stabilized on Lithium, and I took it for ten years. I did very well on Lithium, including graduating from college Magna Cum Laude. One drug as opposed to an entire litany of them. It was enough for me, at the time.

I wish you well in your journey as a person who has been labeled as being bipolar. Please don't forget that you are a person, first. Your diagnosis is but a fraction of who and what you are and it only serves a purpose in as much as the doctors can help you be comfortable in your own skin.

Kay

Anonymous

10/20/07 3:11pm

Yes, unfortunately this is not unheard of. I took many docs and many meds before I was finally diagnosed about 13 years ago. I might also add, it took another 9 years before the right combination of meds was discovered for me through many years of trial and error. So don't lose hope if you experience this. I am happy to say with the right meds I now live a "normal" life, though who's to say what is normal. Good luck and God bless.

bipolarchld2

James

10/24/07 3:37am

It also took over 10 years for doctors to FINALLY figure out why i was so crazy :) Just a flip of a switch for me. I was told my a fam doc that I had signs of bipolar and that I should go see a psycho. doc. so I did... and ever since then, things have been pretty good. Still having a big of anxiety disorder... and I kind of feel like a mania episode has been coming on. Its just not as radical as the previous ones. ??? Anyway.. I am glad that you finally found someone with some intelligence to help you. Living the life that I am sure we both have lived has not been the most pleasant all the time. :)

take care and good luck!

Diagnosing bipolar disorder

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