My Psychiatrist Told Me Episodes Are Seasonal?

is that true? i went in yesterday to get my medications adjusted.
i told her i really doubted being bpd with bipolar disorder because i haven't had any manias or hypomanias even when i went off my medication.
she told me that was probably because
1. i'm not using anymore and
2. its winter
my mind was blown! i had no idea bipolar disorder was affected by the time of year.
is it the same for everyone?

I don't think it's the same for everyone, but for some odd reason I seem to always be depressed in the spring. No clue why that is, especially as I love spring. This year I felt great, though. Which I know now was hypomania caused by antidepressants...

I don't think it's the same for everyone either. Before it got bad (And before the diagnosis) I used to go a little crazy every 3 years. Now there isn't any schedule to it. Although I may need to do long term mood charting to see what happens.

Oh one more thing... I was under the impression that if it's seasonal it would be SAD. Maybe if mania is involved they prefer the bipolar DX?

The way it was explained to me, was not really that it's seasonal per say, but that the changing of the seasons can be a trigger to some people's mood episodes (either up or down) For the last two years I have gone manic when the season changes to spring. Looking back even farther, most of my hospitalizations (either for depression or mania) were around changing seasons (April, and then September/October)

Cheze2 wrote:the changing of the seasons can be a trigger to some people's mood episodes (either up or down) For the last two years I have gone manic when the season changes to spring. Looking back even farther, most of my hospitalizations (either for depression or mania) were around changing seasons (April, and then September/October)

Exactly the same thing here. It seems just about every March/April -- whenever the snow starts to melt -- I start to LOVE EVERYTHING. A day or two of driving around with the windows open leads to road trips, sweeping life changes, and projects galore. Then it's downhill (uphill?) from there, lol. I don't have as strong a tendency towards winter depression, but Spring time is definitely a hypomania trigger for me.

I tend to get more low in the winter and more high in the summer. I talked to my psych about it and she thinks there is a seasonal element to the BP and advised me to get a SAD lamp. I have not got one yet as they are expensive but I think that it would be good to have.

Cracked

@CrackedGirl
yeah i'm the same way. me and my boyfriend were wondering why i haven't been manic or even hypomanic since summer. turns out fall and winter bum me out.

what is a SAD Lamp?

My hypomania and depression have both been related to stressful life events that have all occurred during the same 4 month period of the year - September to December. These events started when I was 10 years old (I'm 46 now) and the last was 8 years ago. These stressful life events range from facing, every Christmas, the brother-in-law who sexually molested me for two years when I was 10-12 years old, to the death of my daddy in September of 1987, the overdose death of my brother in December, 2001 (we buried him on Christmas Eve), to my mother's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer on Thanksgiving day 2004, followed by her death 20 days later on December 15. I am working to better prepare myself for when this time of year is upon me.

I am thankful, I suppose, that these SLEs are clumped together so that I do have a few months where I have historically had less severe depression and hypomania.

Alice

Hi hon

A SAD lamp emits uv rays which have been shown to help ppl with seasonal affective disorder. She thinks that it might help me. It might be worth looking into. My psych said in this case to buy the most epensive one you can afford as they improve in quality with price and you have to spend less time in front of the more epensive ones.

Cracked

April of every year is when my manic symptoms are the most out of control, and it's usually during the wintertime that I feel the most depressed.