Why is bi polar so hard to diagnose?
I can tell you that i thought i was enlightened last year when i was (now knowingly) misdiagnosed border personality disorder. I thought that i had some direction with coping skills, and facing the disorder and decisions made through out my life. However, felt good for awhile and did good with myself. But my meds became tolerant, and other things started coming out that i noticed this last spring. However, many others said they had noticed it all along. Even, had family member in medical field tell me "doesn't surprise me, have suspected for a while", when I told them. I know now that there were small things here and there from when i was younger that could have been caught if paid attention.
There is a continuum of ways that bipolar disorder can be expressed, from only depressed to only manic. The easiest to spot is the traditional manic-depressive shift form one state to the other. By the way, that is the old name for bipolar disorder. Unfortunately people with this disorder do not always shift, or they shift over a great span of time, or the shift is so mild as not to be noticed readily. Since it is a biochemical disorder, it does not have to conform to one's mood at the time, although external events can shift our neurotransmitters enough to give the shift a head start. Sometimes psychiatrists titrate small doses of mood stabilizer medicine with a patient just to confirm their educated hypotheses that the person does indeed suffer from bipolar disorder. Is that the way you were diagnosed?
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Actually come to think of it i have been going to some kind of shrinik, doctor of pschylogoy, social counselor most of my life. I just realized something earlier, i am told by most of my family and by my husband that i act like it is either my way or no way....my realizstion is that YES it has been most of my life. i have had situations where i have been left to figure out life all on my own. My parents divorced when i was 7. I was a very astute child, i paid attention to alot of things in my life. Really thing is what i am getting ready to write sounds like the excuses a seriel killer would use as a defense at a trial, stereotype but usually accurate. At least i think so now, as far as thre accuracy of a childs environment affecting the choices of an adult.
Dad left (we were close), when i was 7. I also blamed my mom bc they were manipulative with each other. Mom played the guilt card, and i have control card or you are going to have to pay card. I saw this i knew what it was even back then.
Then mom marries a man (that up to a week ago and the last almost 16 years was a great dear friend of mine) that at the time i hated. His family treated my mom and us like we were from the wrong side of the tracks. then they tried to get my dad to sign over his parental rights. Of course, he had to let me and my sister know that, knowing that i would confront my mother about it at the age of 9.
So at the time of adolesence, i missed the meaning of real love, but learned to throw your hands in the air and say whatever...give up instead of holding out working it out. I do agree that for some it is necessary. As i got older i did learn that their are some people that just arent made for each other. But as a a child i saw it as manipulation, head games, getting what you want when you want by controlling power with guilt, fear, and intimidation. So guess who the girl bully was in school. Not to the girls per se, although i couldnt figure out why they didn't like me, but i bullied the boys (mostly i think to get their attention.) That would lead me to my second grade catastrophy...,.MTC (acronym for more to come)....