Questioning my diagnosis

I was diagnosed with bp1 this year.
Previously back in 2011 I was diagnosed with c-ptsd.
I'm 50 years of age.
Have never experienced euphoria except for the 4 times in my life I had a crush on a person.
I have had severe insomnia over the course of 2 years, which killed my career to a major extent.
I have never had problems with irritability or long depressions. Nor have I ever felt special or chosen or felt especially confident. Rather the opposite I had low self esteem and was struggling to feel any confidence.
All my insomnia and everything I did was anxiety driven.
Nevertheless in my insomnia period I did have lots of good ideas and funny ones.
I felt the lack of sleep torturous. The brain just would not turn off.
When I bring up the issues with my therapist, he just says every bipolar person is different.
I was put on seroquel, and felt great when I was tapered completely off it.
I felt like seroquel was giving me more anxiety, making me feel more panicky and like I was held in some uncomfortable state.
Now I am on different medication. But am thinking my bipolar is likely c ptsd+ menopause symptoms.
I was in a way happy enough to be bipolar, thinking now I can be medicated, which with c-ptsd is more difficult. But now I am wondering if it can even be true that I am bipolar. I have to say I always before 45 felt my mood was extremely stable. Can't say I recognise myself in moodswings at all. Yes I sometimes get severe depressions because I have tried so hard and keep burning out.

Has anyone else been misdiagnosed as bipolar with menopause or perimenopause being the real issue?
Every time I bring this up with my therapist, it's always everyone is different. Is there any way of actually knowing if the diagnosis is true or not? I think I suffered a severe burn out while having big perimenopausal issues and c ptsd anxiety. And all that together looked like bipolar. ?
How will I get the clinicians to re assess?

Hi there

I received a misdiagnosis of bipolar at one stage. I'd had one episode of mild hypomania as a result of a really high dose of venlafaxine under supervision of a psychiatrist. I was severely depressed and the venlafaxine had kind of helped at lower doses so he decided we should go higher. I went from depressed to overconfident really quickly, and became aggressive, both of which are not my usual style (I'm a severely anxious autistic person). I had psychiatrists at a particular clinic specialising in diagnosis of depression and bipolar insist that because I had that episode, I was bipolar. I had no other symptoms that fit the bipolar box. That episode disappeared when I dropped the dose and I've never had another. A psychologist I dealt with for about 9 years agreed that it really didn't fit. I do take a low-ish Seroquel for my depression though- it's been the most effective long-term solution for me as I've not been able to tolerate antidepressants, and before that I took a low dose of Zyprexa for a time- it did help, but the seroquel was just better at it (the weight gain sucks though).

Not menopausal, but ever since depression first appeared at about the age of 16 (I'm now 41), I've had severe epsiodes with PMDD- I'd have two weeks of just my normal level of depressed, and then two weeks of being severely depressed. I'd become suicidal and have several days of sit and stare at the wall depression. I'd turn up to therapy and say "I feel suicidal but I don't know why". Bipolar was questioned early on with that before I realised that it was connected with my cycle, but in that case it was just going between depressed and severely depressed. There was no highs of any kind. The pill has evened out the PMDD a lot- it's still there, but not as extreme. I've been taking it for 12 years now and it helps me stay a lot more stable.

I have recently been diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD, and have some PTSD issues too. I've realised I've been in a state of burnout for years. I've been reading about other women's experiences with Autism and ADHD and there's a lot of similar things said about the effect of hormones, and how the times of big hormonal shifts (puberty, pregnancy, then menopause) seem to make symptoms worse.

Regarding reassessment- is it time to ask to see someone else? I found that very few therapists and sometimes psychs, seem to understand how severely hormones can influence mood. I had quite a few people brush off or really just ignore my mention of PMDD, while others have been more open to the idea.

Lily

I think it's not necessarily easy to get this right. When I was assessed with the dsm form. I think a lot of the questions should have been discussed closer to better understand the terms what they actually mean. I think it was way too quick, and not enough explanations.
Like the question of grandiosity. Do you feel you are special. Now isn't everyone special in some way or to someone? Also heard all my life I'm weird or unusual. So yes I guess I am special lol. I mostly all my life struggled with self esteem issues. But because I had a good idea and thought the idea was really good, my shrink puts that down to mania and blown up self esteem. I mean nobody can have ideas they think are good, without it being mania..well then all inventors who believe in their ideas must be in danger of being put on medication?
Because my insomnia was draining, I was running on zero but still somehow pushed through. I did think it was insane I managed to function normally with so little sleep. Or basically I was doing a difficult job and managed it. But was constantly extremely exhausted. So if asked did you feel unusually energetic: yes I thought woth so little sleep a person would physically collapse. But I didn't..but I hated it.
I had recently tapered off years of seroquel. Even though my insomnia started before I quit seroquel it didn't get better when I stopped. I couldn't sleep often cold sweats though the night turning from side to side. It was awful.
Sometimes I think of all the things my nervous system has had to go though..never tried venlafaxine. .
100 mg seroquel for sleep 13 years
Then zopiclone for a period
Then occasional benzos for calm so I can sleep.
Then hormone patch
Then Remeron
Then back to seroquel 300mg
Then Lithium
Then hormones again
Tapered off seroquel for second time.
Finally feeling calm and like things are getting better sleepwize.
I feel like my system has been though so much..And the Lithium might be doing something, but coming off seroquel was very nice because it was making me panic more and mire anxious. But I did start the hormone treatment quite soon after starting Lithium, so don't know which one is actually helping.

I have had a lot of labels given to me over the years that have not had a lot of backing to them- ones where questions that should have been more than just yes/no. I think many of the doctors I saw just couldn't be bothered spending any extra time to ask more questions of something you've said.

Meds work differently for every person. I'm glad you're feeling calmer and that sleep is improving for you.

With not knowing which is helping- the lithium or the hormone treatment, maybe both are having an effect, but if it's helping, I'd be inclined to just run with it.

I'm quite sure my issue is bot bipolar. Only a bad case of perimenopause + burnout.
Now I have asked to get a second opinion.
Not because I feel it's important to not be bipolar, but because I need to have the right medication and care.
Because of my insomnia and annoyingly high libido. They thougt bipolar. But I have all the perimenopause symptoms and many of the key bipolar ones I don't have.
Bloodtest has also shown something wrong with hormones.
Still because doctors and psychologists don't communicate things like this happen. Also because doctor's don't understand perimenopause enough.
I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia, because of the extreme stiffness I was feeling and the aches and pains. But these mostly have disappeared on hrt.
My psychologist keeps looking at me like I'm delusional when I keep telling her that your libido can become too high also on perimenopause. To that she said: no it goes down. I said no it can increase in some cases. She said: must be extremely rare.
So with this kind of understanding, my battle feels like it's already going to be an uphill one.

Is it worth trying to seek out someone who specialises more in women's health. I found there was a big difference between "most doctors" and someone with an interest in it. I went from "there's nothing physically wrong on your scans" to "that's not normal, and not acceptable to be using those meds for this".