Diagnosis Disagreement

I'm diagnosed bipolar II with psychosis.

I'm pretty sure I'm a bipolar type I. Doc has diagnosed me with mixed episodes and mania. Actually, what he thinks is mixed, I think is mania. What he thinks is mania, I think is hypomania. What he thinks is hypomania, I think is high functioning. What I think is mixed, he usually agrees, depression too. We both agree I've had manic episodes, he's mentioned he's still trying to figure me out, I'm an unusual presentation of symptoms. Not so much with the shopping sprees and impulse control problems etc. (Or I think that only happens when I'm hypomanic.) I've also never been hospitalized because I never lost impulse control so much that I was like dancing naked in the streets or whatever manic people are supposed to do. I have just like the super fast racing thoughts and the disorganized speech and "the whole world just got dumped in my brain" stuff. Hypomanic is more when everything in the world is wonderful and I'm really into painting and buying stuff all of a sudden.

We both agree I've had full blown manic episodes, (just a different interpretation of which ones they were) and he mentioned that I may be "more" bipolar than originally thought. I'm not going for some one upping score card, but I like to be properly labelled on this stuff. (Like I felt relieved when he took away my diagnosis of general anxiety.) Feels right. I like labels.

Anyone else have something like this?

I'm having a tough time getting my doctor to take my concerns about being bipolar seriously. She seems to think my mania moods are just me feeling better (I was diagnosed with depression when I was 15) although I am struggling to see how being ontop of the world one day, my mind racing 100 miles a minuet from one subject to another and then waking up suicidal the next day..is feeling better.

It is so very frustrating when you disagree with your doctor, I know they are the 'experts' on these things but surely we know our selves better than they do?

PaganRose has a good point - that doctors may not understand what you're going through - which is why you may benefit from having a second or third opinion. It took me quite a few doctors to find one that I could feel comfortable working with.

Yes,
Pagan, in your situation, it's worse, because it's a big difference between treatment. At the beginning, my doc said that they don't really like to jump straight on a bipolar diagnosis for people. And I always wondered like... "do you have to wait until the person is in crisis mode to get them the right treatment?" Could technically harm a really depressed person or people with other mental illnesses with the standard bipolar treatment I guess.

My doc had me as depression with psychosis for like a month before switching over. I actually really like my doc, he has me on the right treatment, gets back to me immediately in crisis, and has a general understanding of my thinking processes after asking a lot of questions. Treatment would be the same if I am bipolar 1, since it is working, I'm mostly just arguing the label.