was I ever really bipolar?

Hey everyone. Im new to this forum so bare with me. I know people cant diagnose on here but I just wanted to share my story and ask your thoughts. I was diagnosed with depression after a messy divorce of my parents about 10 years ago. I was seeing a private pdoc who was becoming very expensive. My university councilor suggested I speak to a different and cheaper pyschcologist. I did however after two visits and only just having a psychology class on the topic of bipolar I went to her and said "this sounds like me". She listed off the symptoms and I'm like yep yep yep, me me me. She then gave me the diagnosis of bipolar 2 and booked me in to see their pdoc who in that one visit gave me meds and said to me if I dont take these my life will be destroyed for ever and ill never work etc. I embraced the diagnosis for a while, most of my friends telling me I was not bipolar at all and didnt understand the diagnosis. I was so young and stupid. I took myself off the meds after a couple of months after realising never really had the symptoms and any symptoms I did have were in fact mild and part of the "normal" human experience. I Started making positive changes in my life like sleeping more studying less exercising and eating better. They saw a massive improvement and discharged from their service. I have been living med free now for the past 7 years have a fantastic job I've been in for 4 years and have had no evidence of any bipolar symptoms. So I wonder was bipolar, did I get better or what? Thanks everyone

Psychiatry’s diagnostic criteria are literally voted into existence and inserted into the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM). What is voted in is a system of classification of symptoms that is drastically different from, and foreign to, anything in medicine. None of the diagnoses are supported by objective evidence of physical disease, illness, or anything like that. There are no lab tests, brain scans, X-rays or chemical imbalance tests that can verify any mental disorder is a physical condition. This is not to say that people do not get depressed, or that people can’t experience emotional or mental duress, but psychiatry has repackaged these emotions and behaviors as “disease” in order to sell drugs. Additionally, the DSM system is not scientific. It’s own editors state that “there is no assumption that each category of mental disorder is a completely discrete entity with absolute boundaries dividing it from other mental disorders or from no mental disorder.” (DSM-IV, pg. xxii)

That above post was so generic sorry, but I was trying to point out the phoniness of the whole thing, the word trickery of turning thinking and feelings (actions) into "diseases" physical things.

Bipolar 2 is is like the biggest scam ever, bipolar used to be called manic depression but as psychiatry became a big bucks big business and they started disease mongering the name changed to bipolar and then bipolar 2 was added to make the dragnet even wider.

Disease mongering is the practice of widening the diagnostic boundaries of illnesses, and promoting public awareness of such, in order to expand the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments, which may include pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and other professional or consumer organizations.

Here is a report on it , The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0030185

bboo88 wrote:She listed off the symptoms and I'm like yep yep yep, me me me.

Copy_Cat wrote:

bboo88 wrote:She listed off the symptoms and I'm like yep yep yep, me me me.

How on Earth is that statement connect to that (horribly drawn) picture? In that picture, the patient just says a couple things, and then the doctor (who are apparently all quacks) says it's bipolar. Ha-ha-ha, so funny, much original. The statement bboo made said that the psychiatrist named off the symptoms and he/she said that that's what he/she's going through. That's what my psychiatrist did after I told him all that I was going through. He told me "well, it could be this, but it could also be this," and so on.

Tyler77 wrote: He told me "well, it could be this, but it could also be this," and so on.

He didn't do anything but rename what you told him.

Hey doc, public speaking freaks me out and I can't do it.

You have social anxiety disorder.

What's is social anxiety disorder ? Public speaking freaks you out and you can't do it.

bboo88 wrote:Hey everyone. Im new to this forum so bare with me. I know people cant diagnose on here but I just wanted to share my story and ask your thoughts. I was diagnosed with depression after a messy divorce of my parents about 10 years ago. I was seeing a private pdoc who was becoming very expensive. My university councilor suggested I speak to a different and cheaper pyschcologist. I did however after two visits and only just having a psychology class on the topic of bipolar I went to her and said "this sounds like me". She listed off the symptoms and I'm like yep yep yep, me me me. She then gave me the diagnosis of bipolar 2 and booked me in to see their pdoc who in that one visit gave me meds and said to me if I dont take these my life will be destroyed for ever and ill never work etc. I embraced the diagnosis for a while, most of my friends telling me I was not bipolar at all and didnt understand the diagnosis. I was so young and stupid. I took myself off the meds after a couple of months after realising never really had the symptoms and any symptoms I did have were in fact mild and part of the "normal" human experience. I Started making positive changes in my life like sleeping more studying less exercising and eating better. They saw a massive improvement and discharged from their service. I have been living med free now for the past 7 years have a fantastic job I've been in for 4 years and have had no evidence of any bipolar symptoms. So I wonder was bipolar, did I get better or what? Thanks everyone

I doubt you were really bipolar or at least moderate to serve, at most a mild case. To me it sounds like normal reactions to life's stresses. Mainstream psychiatry one has one tool and that to prescribe medication. The DSM terms are so loose, so vague, that most of the population could be diagnosed with a mental disorder at any given time. Even smoking marijuana is somehow classified as a disorder in the DSM: http://behavenet.com/node/21547 Why? Well, one more label to bill insurance with.

I think your psych should have worked more with you, seeing if psychotherapy, CBT or other methods could help instead of medication. Dolling out a Bipolar label so fast is asinine, but thats how it works. Saying your life will be destroyed is wrong, she has no way to know that. Shes not in your work, your home or your head. The psychology course you took is a perfect example of a curriculum that conditions psychiatrists and psychologists to see illness in every human experience. Its a curriculum like that which sets the mindset in doctors to prescribe, prescribe, prescribe. I don't think you were dumb, I made the same mistake. A lot of people fall for it. The system plays with trust and innocence. Wonderful to have, but we make the mistake of believing what we are told to be real.

-- Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:10 am --

Copy_Cat wrote:

Tyler77 wrote: He told me "well, it could be this, but it could also be this," and so on.

He didn't do anything but rename what you told him.

Hey doc, public speaking freaks me out and I can't do it.

You have social anxiety disorder.

What's is social anxiety disorder ? Public speaking freaks you out and you can't do it.

You said what takes me paragraphs to say in 2 sentences And once the social anxiety comes into pay now somehow an actual problem exits with your mind.

-- Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:14 am --

Tyler77 wrote:

Copy_Cat wrote:

bboo88 wrote:She listed off the symptoms and I'm like yep yep yep, me me me.

How on Earth is that statement connect to that (horribly drawn) picture? In that picture, the patient just says a couple things, and then the doctor (who are apparently all quacks) says it's bipolar. Ha-ha-ha, so funny, much original. The statement bboo made said that the psychiatrist named off the symptoms and he/she said that that's what he/she's going through. That's what my psychiatrist did after I told him all that I was going through. He told me "well, it could be this, but it could also be this," and so on.

Imgine if we diagnosed physical illness that way

Hey all,
Just a general reminder of the forum rules:

POSTS THAT ATTEMPT TO DIAGNOSE ANY MEMBER OR TO DISPUTE A DIAGNOSIS GIVEN TO A MEMBER BY A QUALIFIED MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL (remember that only the individual´s physician or psychologist is legally able to provide a diagnosis).

I know that in these types of situations it is frustrating, but I'm only here to stick to those defined rules.

Copy_Cat, It's nice to see you back

Psychiatric diagnose is guessing.

Rarely someone really fits a diagnose to a T, too. Although that exists.

You can treat symptoms and see if medication helps you in any way.

ANYONE can take these drugs and see if they work or not for whatever thing.

Public speaking is a type of social anxiety most people have. They take propanolol for it, usually.
Receiving a diagnosis isn't something permanent, and you will be a unique shade of that diagnosis.

Psychiatry gives you advice and tools. If you're good on meds, good. If not, take them.
If you didn't felt too bad again after so long, I doubt it's bipolar. If it is, maybe it only responds to stress/certain stresses? Who knows?

Psychiatry is guessing and undefining. Use it when you need it.

Glad that you got off of harmful meds. Glad that you were never forced into facilities against your will that contain rapists, sexual predators, and other convicts making transitions. Lastly, there are no true diagnosis in the mental health field just labellings and there are no true professionals within the field, does not take a professional to simply say something and provide no proof.