Bipolar I or Bipolar II? Anything else?

Chucky wrote:Hey Jake (?),

i'm no expert in the area of bipolar, but something tells me that what you're describing is more bipolar I than II. What was the official diagnosis from your doc?; or did he/she just say 'bipolar'? I can make things a little clearer for you too: THe SSRI you took understandably made you feel worse, because that's what SSRIs do to people with bipolar. Lamictal, however, is a recognised drug for bipolar and it therefore makes sense that you feel better on it.

Why I think it's more bipolar I than II is the bit you mentioned in your second paragraph. It's kind of 'psychotic' or 'paranoia' (sorry if these terms sound too severe to use), and that's a feature of the mania in bipolar I. Such episodes don't feature in bipolar II as far as I know.

Take care dude,
Kevin

Yep Jake
My doctor didn't even given me a diagnosis. I told her about the episode I had after taking the SSRIs, then she just prescribed mood stabilizers without giving an official diagnosis. Reading upon Schizoaffective disorder it seems like I have a few of those symptoms, though typically my schizophrenic occurrences are positive, such as the music and voices within my mind. Last night I was hearing sounds like beeping, zooming, and some strange '50s music that was almost like trance (1950's trance ). My two favorite auditory hallucinations are a few weeks ago I heard a phrase sang by what sounded like 2-3 children singing in sync, the lyrics were along the lines of 'Nove dalhans a-quix sansa forstu' I still have the melody of the singing memorized. My second favorite was when I was on the verge of waking up in the morning, laying in bed half asleep knowing that I have to get up for school, and something shouted in my mind 'JAKE!', woke me with a startle. It didn't sound like my dad or bro, though I checked to see if either of them were awake, both were snoring asleep. I appreciate that awakening because I've missed all but one day of school in order to be able to graduate (19 days missed total I believe.) If I would have slept in, my graduation would have been delayed. I have minor delusions as well, as if I'm living in an alternate reality. Like sometimes I'll fall into a state where I think there's a huge cliff a mile or two ahead of me on a highway, or the trees are engulfing the road I take every morning on the way to school, become paranoid and scared, then realize that its just my mind messing with me.

These mood stabilizers don't seem to change my auditory hallucinations one bit. My disorders are definitely genetic, considering my dad is bipolar and hears voices as well, though his stories are much more intense then mine. Maybe I have yet to experience. He told me once he was driving highway on the way to pick up his daughter (one of the sisters that I don't know), and he started hearing her voice in his head having a discussion with him. He was talking aloud and continuing the conversation. My brother seems to have a pretty good, sane & functioning life though, but I do believe he experiences minor bipolar. The strange thing about my family & me is my dad & bro are practically retarded in the fields of school, especially literature, though I seem to excel in what they don't.

My auditory hallucinations began after the first manic episode.

SmileXx: That sounds quite reasonable, though its only been a few months since I've 'crossed the line'. I don't think I've forgotten what its like to be normal, instead memories of being bipolar continually haunt my happiness. The more I cope with it & realize that's who I am, such as placing it in a category like 'I'm a fast typer', the less it affects my happy states. Almost like relating my fast typing with being a nerdy geek, if I relate the two, I'm in a worse state of mind. I don't relate the two though.

SmileXx might be in a better position to comment here because she has Bipolar disorder as far as I know. in your case, it obviously might not be biplar and it sounds like your doctor is trying to figure out what you have by applying different meds to you. You mentioned schizoaffective disorder but, to be honest Jake-o, you'll probably find that you identify with a whole host of different disorders if you look up the symptoms. As I'm fond of saying, it's about which one disorder describes you the best. For example, I have symptoms of AvPD, Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizoid PD, Narcisstic PD, Antisocial PD, etc; but the one that sdescribes me the best is one called Asperger's Syndrome.

Kevin

Chucky wrote:SmileXx might be in a better position to comment here because she has Bipolar disorder as far as I know. in your case, it obviously might not be biplar and it sounds like your doctor is trying to figure out what you have by applying different meds to you. You mentioned schizoaffective disorder but, to be honest Jake-o, you'll probably find that you identify with a whole host of different disorders if you look up the symptoms. As I'm fond of saying, it's about which one disorder describes you the best. For example, I have symptoms of AvPD, Schizoaffective Disorder, Schizoid PD, Narcisstic PD, Antisocial PD, etc; but the one that sdescribes me the best is one called Asperger's Syndrome.

Kevin

Ah Asperger's. I did a speech on the autism spectrum about a month ago, I wasn't even able to finish the last paragraph because I was too paranoid up there, even though the class is about 10 people & everyone I've known for about 4-5 years =\

It's quite hard to distinguish between my disorders, my Bipolar doesn't seem to affect my auditory hallucinations, but does induce delusion & paranoia if I'm in a mixed state. It seems like the two major disorders to decide from is Bipolar & a sort of social paranoia or anxiety.

I have a friend with ADHD and some other disorders, he's a pretty smart guy and had some severe 'word salad' or other speech issues, it's funny as hell when he's drunk. His mind doesn't go blank from anxiety or whatever else so his word salads can last forever

Crayz wrote:It's quite hard to distinguish between my disorders, my Bipolar doesn't seem to affect my auditory hallucinations, but does induce delusion & paranoia if I'm in a mixed state. It seems like the two major disorders to decide from is Bipolar & a sort of social paranoia or anxiety.

Hallucinations are seen in severe bipolar mania and sometimes in severe bipolar depression.

I'm a Bipolar Borderline Personality.
It gets a little hard to decipher the symptoms of each from each other, but I've been doing this since I was in 9th grade and suspected.
I also have severe anxiety, which my shrink attributes to my BPD when it's not running amuck.
When it is, she attributes it to a Panic Disorder...
It depends on the severeity... which bounces for me a lot.