Aspergers and Bipolar disorder

Post Reply New Topic

Give the lawyers a minute, they'll come up with it yet.

It isn't so much that such things might be very valid to explain somethings, it's just the stilted news coverage. It's like we get branded every time something goes wrong and nothing about something that might be right. After a while it just builds to the point that it's all negative. Snake pit thinking at it's finest.

I dislike this pity factor about the spectrum, I see so often in the news, but you know? It might be better then what is yet to come, if the shysters get to blaming bad happenings to this label. All the more important reason to get a positive message out now.

My autism plus daughter has Bi-polar. I diagnosed her when she was nine, tracked on a calendar her behaviour. She would have six weeks of, um, normal for a wookie, and then two weeks of absolute craziness until I knew one of us was going into an institution and I didn't care which one, and then bink! she would suddenly be normal again. After tracking it for several months I took her to a child psychiatrist who at that time said he had never heard of such a thing (bet he knows better now) but put her on lithium as an experiment. We went from a minumum of six crises per day to one crisis per day. She's thirty now and on a variety of medications and her bipolarity has stretched out and evened out. Only rarely does she get manic enough for us to give her a day or two of clonazapam.

Double whammy is right. I think Asperger itself is great, but the baggage it brings along is really a downer.

I have Asperger, OCD, depression, GAD and bipolar. I'm on depakote ER, lexapro and take klonopin to stop panic attacks. I have to go to therapy and support groups, and I have to carry a mini bible and a stack of notecards in my pocket, telling me I'll be alright.

Bottom line, it sucks. But you gotta go what you gotta do to survive.

A lot of Aspie's have mood disorders, I know both my sons and I do, whether it's full bi-polar or Mood Disorder NOS is still not determined finally. One doctor says one thing another says the opposite. Either way, yes, the mania often exhibits as anger, particularly in children for some reason. And I've seen published reports saying 50% or more diagnosed with Asperger's also have bi-polar. I don't know if that extends through the rest of the spectrum or not.

um havent read many of the posts gotta scoot soon so..

ill leave this...

i have as add ocd all mild lol hmm... my father has bi-polar disorder..

wow family connection eh wow....

I also know someone who has as whos mother has bi polar hmmmmmmmmmm...

connections eh

ciao

Mucho sympathies. Bipolor disorder is a a horribly crippling condition- both physically and mentally.
I was initially diagnosed as having schizoid tendencies but I now know for a fact that I too have BPD.
At the beginning of last year, I was in such a severe state of intermingled hysteria/morbidity that I tried to commit suicide but at the last minute, I chickened out.

Long story short, I spent 24 hours on suicide watch in an asylum before being bounced to and from out-patient clinics until I got so fed up with the constantly changing roaster I just gave up.

My advice to you is to find a doctor/therpist you can connect with and get as much treatment as possible because believe me- having that great, snarling Rottweiler following you around without a leash or muzzle is not good for the nerves.

This sounds a lot like me, I am not sure if I have Aspergers but I have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder since I was very young. I also have a large laundrey list, ADD, ADHD, OCD, Anxiety Disorder, and I am schizophrenic. I have delt with many issues through my life, but when I started talking to my doctor about the posibility about me having Aspergers with both thought it was the only thing that made sense. We are still looking into it, but if you feel that you may have Aspergers I would strongly suggest talking to someone about it.

While i am jsut about ready to fall asleep(finally)...i have to add to this thread..

I was previously diagnosed with BP class 2 (meaning that i am more of a harm to my self than others during mania),but nothing (drugs) ever did any good(,and some really set me off badly)...

As far as the therapy side to treatment went...well,none of it made sense to me. ..years later, i find out about AS,,and Wp has actually helped me understand quite a few things about it (and MANY other things as well)
Take "racing thoughts" for example...It's so rare for me to mentally slow down,that my response to that question(ie,"do you have racing thoughts?"),should have been "only when i'm thinking".


The thing i have been wondering about lately is this...
Are BP class 1 individuals more likely to be on the sociopath end of social order...than say someone like myself(BPclass2/possible AS)?...but maybe i'm jumping the gun a bit here though,as i've not returned to be analyzed for AS yet..(yes,i'm dreading it something awful.)

my highschool art teachers definitely had mood swings lol

what does that mean lol art people aspie people have mood swings...?



andrew johns eh what a legend lol haha.. he got caught for drugs eh... lol what a funny guy...
lol the tv show the "footy show" eh...
so he has bipolar or is that just an escape clause LOL

yea... I reckon a lot bloody brilliant people have bipolar haha and aspergers and... ADD.. and dyslexia and.... autism and....

wow doesnt that make you feel good.. lol...

"This sounds a lot like me, I am not sure if I have Aspergers but I have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder since I was very young. I also have a large laundrey list, ADD, ADHD, OCD, Anxiety Disorder, and I am schizophrenic. I have delt with many issues through my life, but when I started talking to my doctor about the posibility about me having Aspergers with both thought it was the only thing that made sense. We are still looking into it, but if you feel that you may have Aspergers I would strongly suggest talking to someone about it."

yea you got one grand creative label.. one great doing label ! !!

try not to focus on the negatives eh lol so many positives
I guess Ive been focusing on my negatives eh blaming my ADD for not finishing my assignments but yea..
Ill get there..

hmm

WHAT IS THE LINK BETWEEN ASPERGERS AND BIPOLAR DISORDER?

After 8 years of having borderline personality disorder diagnosed (which we never agreed with), they've finally accepted they got it wrong . Now diagnosed and treated for bipolar, 5 session psychological assessment revealed anxiety but also felt I had aspergers, but the psychologist I saw cannot diagnose it. Now waiting to see if the GP will fund an assessment. Also have dyslexia.

My wife has a BPD/NPD diagnosis, but also shows a fair number of AS traits. The AS traits became more apparent after a fair bit of therapy.

A study I read mentioned that AS shows up as a risk factor for BPD, et cetera. I figure that AS makes life harder and is often co-morbid with HSP, so this is fairly intuitive. For talk therapy, HSP/AS and BPD have similar treatments (DBT), so the distinction is fairly moot.

From a practical standpoint, medication is cheap and easy, but often useless and a health risk. I hear that it usually helps for bipolar, although it was pretty much useless for my wife - probably worth a shot, but be ready to decide it isn't helping. (A 3-6 month diary may help you make a firm decision.)

--Argyle
...y'know, of my non-AS acquaintances...most of them are odd in at least 1 way that makes AS look fairly tame...so I wouldn't worry too much...we're all mad here.

Hello all, I have Aspie's, my wife has Bi-polar and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I have noticed some trait's that we both share and most, for her can be attributed to the OCD. The biggest difference with her mood swings and emotional changes was when she took her Rx for the first time, within ten minutes she said she could feel a difference. Since then some fine tuning has made the BP not even noticeable, though she feels it coming back if she is late with a dose. Before I was diagnosed with aspies I tried BP Rx and it had no effect on me at all, good nor bad, nothing changed. While the trait's for both are similar and can be shared I would have to say the biggest difference is that one can be helped with medicine while the other can not because it is a physical difference. Aspies think differently it is hard wired into a person and not a chemical imbalance. Not that one is better or worse than the other,....just different.

I have diagnosed schizoaffective disorder and I think I might have Asperger(although undiagnosed so far).

Bipolar disorder does not have any symptoms. Manic and depressive episodes do. Bipolar is diagonsed on the presence or absence of manic, hypomanic, mixed, depressive mood episodes.

Asperger's is part of your base personality. Asperger traits persist whether you're depressed, manic, or not experiencing a mood episode at all.

Just because a manic episode shares some symptoms with Asperger's (e.g. irritability), they do not occur in the same context, and are thus not mutually exclusive.

Since finally getting my DX I have ignored the prior findings by non-specialists that I have Major Depression and Panic Disorder. My reason is that a diagnosis on the spectrum is the one that feels right. The non-specialists I worked with at my HMO (where one size fits all) kept ignoring symptoms that didn't fit their diagnosis. This sent me looking for answers, which I was lucky to find.

Then, when I told my GP that I'd found a specialist who confirmed that I have AS, she says, "I am also licensed as a children's doctor and so I deal with childhood developmental disorders. The specialists just want your money."

I was pissed, but I then told her that the specialist founded her practice as a non-profit community. Thank god my GP changed her tune about it or I would have fired her then and there. When she apologized, I knew she got it. She even referred me to a neurologist.

I am exploring the connection between my high anxiety and AS. That is, I've noticed that my AS causes my anxiety to raise due to so much confusion and social anxiety, etc. Also, I've known for a long time that I feel run down by all the anxiety, which seems like depression, but actually, I find, is more like my batteries running out of juice.

Unless I can rule out the idea that my AS just looks like Panic Disorder and Major depression to non-specialists, I am not going to pursue these as valid diagnoses for me. I have a real problem with medications, super low tolerance, so I am not willing to take meds that I am not 100% sure I need. (My brother is bi-polar, and meds have saved his life, so I'm not against meds, I just have a hard time with them.)

One thing for sure: if I didn't feel so much calmer and able to deal with daily crap since getting my diagnosis, I would still be on the search for answers, including meds. Whatever we do , I think we should feel comfortable with the DX or seek other opinions.

My wife is bipolar and I have AS. I am about the extreme opposite of bipolar. I don't see any similarities. But we're all different.