I have had bipolar for 18 months?
341766
I have suffered bipolar for a long time and was on lithium and got well for a while but I got defiant and got sick again with the destructive highs and the desperate lows so stay on your med and talk to your doctor. If you are not happy seek another opinion until you find someone who works well with you and for you. I am now on Valpro and risperadol and I have been well for over 6 years and I have been working full time for two years now. There is something that helps me and that is writing. I keep a diary and write my thoughts and musing in it. Doing crosswords is a good thing to get your mind off your troubles. Good luck and if I can help further contact me at <firenzeperme@yahoo.com.au>\nIf you going through a low reading about your condition will not be a great help but bipolar.com have a downloadable diary that you keep to track your moods on a daily basis. Give it go and keep your chin up! You are not alone in this battle.
626497
I have Bipolar Disorder and Borederline Personality Disorder. You have to be nice and be very supported to our mental health prolbems. It helps my family to take me to talk to somebody like every other week. Just read up on the disorders. And make sure he takes his meds. I once got off mine meds for 4 or 5 days and it made me sick.
946053
Not likely to be bipolar. Here's the lowdown, I think you'll find very few of the criteria fit.\n\nOK, so it's a mood disorder and a serious mental illness. It has a strong genetic component, but appears to be triggered environmentally. There are no diagnostic tests for it, just psychiatric evaluation. Most sufferers are not diagnosed until middle age, and it takes an average of around 8-10 years to get a correct diagnosis. Historically, figures suggested it affects about 0.8% of the population at some point, which makes it about half as common as schizophrenia. In recent years, bipolar disorder has become an 'in' diagnosis, and many more people are being diagnosed at younger and younger ages. As with ADHD, this fad may well pass with time, although for the moment many celebrities appear to be 'popularising' it.\n\nIt is characterised by episodes of severe clinical depression and mania or hypomania (for definitions of those, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_diagnostic_criteria_for_bipolar_disorder ). The extreme end of mania often turns into psychosis, complete with hallucinations and delusions. During manic phases, the person's judgement and perception of reality is severely compromised, leading to risky actions with potentially damaging consequences (financially, sexually and relationship-wise). Untreated, episodes generally worsen over time due to an effect known as kindling. Untreated Bipolar sufferers are at a very high risk of suicide: 20-25% attempt it, and 15% succeed.\n\nThe cycles in bipolar disorder are much longer than people generally believe. Anyone whose mood changes from minute to minute is very unlikely to be bipolar. Bipolar 1 is characterised by mood episodes lasting many months, while Bipolar 2 has episodes in the region of weeks to months. Rapid and ultra-rapid cycling bipolar disorder is rare, and cycles last days to weeks.\n\nThere are many drugs available to treat the symptoms of bipolar (there is no cure). These are either anti-convulsants or anti-psychotics (personally I take both), and the most well known of these is Lithium. Most patients will go through a number of different drugs before finding one that works for them.
430101
I suffer from manic depression/bipolar. It took a while to be properly diagnosed but basically it was chronic depression, irritability, mood swings, rocky relationships, irresponsible actions/activities and paranoia. You won't qualify for bipolar until you've had a manic episode though and you'll know when that happens because everything will be unusually fantastic and your thinking will be unfocused with racing thoughts. These are just a few of the symptoms that I experienced but apart from the depression and manic episodes, everyone's symptoms can vary. Don't try and self diagnose though. Have an open communication with your doctor about it because it's very tricky to diagnose properly.\nHope that helps a little bit.
995724
Best to visit a good psychiatrist. I was diagnosed Bi-Polar about 6 years ago- I'm not sure that the diagnosis is/was correct, but I do very often resemble a person that is bi-polar. I dont have many down (depression) episodes at all, I'm up and more up mostly. There are many drugs available for every condition out there. My personal opinion is that mental and emotional disorders or maladies are very hard to pinpoint. I feel that I'm Mildly Autistic or have aspergeurs Syndrome, NOT Bi-Polar Disorder. The truth may be that I have several overlapping conditions, who knows? There are many web sites to check out also NAMI is an organization that caters to this subject. Good Luck!
725393
Education. Read the Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide (Amazon link below). It's an excellent book on th esubject, and will give you a very good idea what to expect and how to deal with it.\n\nYou should also visit one of the many online support groups below.
41881
bipolar changes are more frequent
57053
Please see a psychologist immediately.  You may be suffering from Bi-polar disorder.
365825
A child with a parent who has bipolar disorder is at greater risk of developing the disorder. This does not mean that you will become bipolar, only that there is more risk than for a person with no family history of the disorder.\n\nIf you really want to help your mum, get her to a doctor to diagnose and treat her. Your family doctor is a great place to start. You doctor may treat her or may refer her to a psychiatrist.\n\nI recently started treatment for bipolar disorder and now I feel better than I have in all my 46 years.\n\nI am including two links one is the National Institute of Mental Health here in the US (I assume you are in the UK by your use of the word mum). The other is the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, also in the US. They may be able to direct you to support services in the UK.\n\nHope this helps you and your mum!\n\nSincerely,\nTerry Sisson  tls3123283@yahoo.com\nFort Worth, Texas
778810
Far fewer people are bipolar than you may think...\n\nOK, so it's a mood disorder and a serious mental illness. It has a strong genetic component, but appears to be triggered environmentally. There are no diagnostic tests for it, just psychiatric evaluation. Most sufferers are not diagnosed until middle age, and it takes an average of around 8-10 years to get a correct diagnosis. Historically, figures suggested it affects about 0.8% of the population at some point, which makes it about half as common as schizophrenia. In recent years, bipolar disorder has become an 'in' diagnosis, and many more people are being diagnosed at younger and younger ages. As with ADHD, this fad may well pass with time, although for the moment many celebrities appear to be 'popularising' it.\n\nIt is characterised by episodes of severe clinical depression and mania or hypomania (for definitions of those, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Current_diagnostic_criteria_for_bipolar_disorder ). The extreme end of mania often turns into psychosis, complete with hallucinations and delusions. During manic phases, the person's judgement and perception of reality is severely compromised, leading to risky actions with potentially damaging consequences (financially, sexually and relationship-wise). Untreated, episodes generally worsen over time due to an effect known as kindling. Untreated Bipolar sufferers are at a very high risk of suicide: 20-25% attempt it, and 15% succeed.\n\nThe cycles in bipolar disorder are much longer than people generally believe. Anyone whose mood changes from minute to minute is very unlikely to be bipolar. Bipolar 1 is characterised by mood episodes lasting many months, while Bipolar 2 has episodes in the region of weeks to months. Rapid and ultra-rapid cycling bipolar disorder is rare, and cycles last days to weeks.\n\nThere are many drugs available to treat the symptoms of bipolar (there is no cure). These are either anti-convulsants or anti-psychotics (personally I take both), and the most well known of these is Lithium. Most patients will go through a number of different drugs before finding one that works for them.
736153
Yes, I'm afraid it's a life sentence. That's the bad news. The good news is that the treatments are excellent, and there is no reason not to have a normal life, career and relationship.\n\nIt will take a while to get th eright meds for you, as we are all different, and it will take time for you to come to terms with the diagnosis. Be thankful you were diagnosed when you were - I had another 12 years before I was diagnosed.\n\nCome over to http://www.crazyboards.org or http://z9.invisionfree.com/Bipolar_Haven for some company
91321
I cant say yes and I cant say no but I know myself being a bipolar I discovered at a very young age that i had/have certain abilities that are like sixth sense and my son who is 5 and a bipolar also has certain abilities ( but him I dont know if it is that or if it is that he was medicined by a medicine man when he was younger, Im trying to teach and help him to be able to control himself.) I have out of body experiences when I want and dont want I just now at 25 am learning how to and when to use my abilities before it would just come and go but I get into my minds right frame and can control them. I know sounds weird but keep in touch with nature and your gut instinct mothernature lets you know everything you'll ever need to know.
612464
you haven't described anything that sounds like a manic episode to me - bipolar is NOT what most people conceive of as 'mood swings'. You haven't described anything that sounds like mania. It's more than just feeling cheerful - if someone is manic, they will talk a mile a minute and might go and do all sorts of crazy things, assuming that they can do it automatically, like go and gamble away their lifes savings because they're certain they've found a 'code' that will win them millions of dollars, or they'll commit crimes because they don't realise that what they're doing is wrong at the time. And then they come down and often feel really terrible about what's happened. You haven't described anything like that.\n\nIf there has been a tragedy, it is quite normal that you could be having problems .\nReally though, you should seek out professional help. Why delay and be in pain for longer than you need to? As both a mental health professional and a sufferer of depression, I can't recommend going and seeing a psychologist enough!\n\nIf your mum isn't a professional, then she doesn't know what is wrong with you most likely. Only a professional can make any sort of diagnoses, but far more important than a diagnosis is helping you to cope better with life. It doesn't matter what you have a potential diagnosis of really.
806693
Aside from the fact that nothing about mania is normal, yes. My memories of manias and hypomanias can be sketchy, and this seems to be fairly common, from talking to other bipolars. And yes, the out of body thing is very familiar, too.
705543
I have been per scribed every antidepressant I can think of, and of course they changed keep changing it.  I finally got a doctor to listen to me, and she put me on the medicine Depakote and Wellbutrin SR. Please talk to your doctor and let them advise you.  If your doctor doesn't help, go to another one.  I wanted to quit so many times but you must keep on trying. Good Luck and God Bless You.  Let me add that I have been like this since I was a little girl and of course no one know or recognized what the deal was.  It is very hard to explain when you don't know what's going on in your head as a  child.  When a doctor did say the words "bipolar" I had an explanation for all the weird feelings I had and all I was going through. Peace.
674085
I have depression but not bipolar.
599968
Hey, check out these websites for the symptoms of bipolar disorder. I am bipolar and these are some good sites. Best of luck. I hope for you that it is something other than bipolar.\n\nSincerely,\nTerry