Aspies with bipolar disorder

Post Reply New Topic

What are your symptoms like when you are manic and depressed. I have reason to believe I am bipolar in addition to having aspergers. I find though that some of my symptoms are not exactly what an NT would experience. When I am manic i stim like crazy and have zero consentration. My thoughts come together in loose associations that no one can follow and I often express ideas in such a strange manner people cannot follow me. I also have serious anger problems durning these times because I feel like the world is not moving fast enough fo me... When I feel depressed I exhibit the more introverted aspergers side where I desire more and more time alone and sensory overload is very easy. I'm just wondering if anyone who has being diagnosed with both and what they experience.

Oh, hey, I've been wondering about this.
I have this problem, too. My symptoms are a little unusual compared to an NT but, luckily, my therapist figured it out. You're the only other person I've heard of that stims when you're manic, but I do that a lot. It helps me calm down when it feels like everything is moving too fast. I have the opposite problem in that I tend to have sensory overload when I'm manic because there's already so much going on in my head. I also tend to say/do stupid things when I'm manic because I don't think things through carefully enough (this is especially a problem in social situations, having asperger's). When I'm depressed, I just feel tired and numb.

THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS THREAD.

I have been suffering from a severe mood episode all year, which has rendered me unable to study and to have to be cared for by my parents. I am certain I have bipolar type 2 after reading massive amounts of material on it during my upswings , but psychiatrists have been confused about my atypical symptom progression. Taking SSRI's has sent me into what I believe is a manic episode (the same thing has happened on two different SSRI's plus ritalin (a stimulant)).

I have had bouts of extreme "psychomotor agitation" during this state, where it's basically like I'm stimming out of control, alongside everything being sped up, very rapid talking, difficulty sleeping, waking up several hours too early every morning, bursts of euphoria and out of control excitement/enthusiasm for something I am obsessed with, and zero concentration. I tend to have zero concentration when I am severely depressed also (not so much so when I'm mildly depressed).

I wrote a simplified list of my "up" and "down" symptoms earlier this year before I experimented with any medication. I believe I was going through a "mixed episode" of sorts, consisting of extremely rapid cycling between very severe depression and hypomania (cycling as rapid as suddenly swinging from one extreme to the other every hour to three hours). These are the symptoms for each state:

Low
-catatonia/extreme psychomotor retardation (unable to physically move)
-exhaustion
-loss of appetite
-no motivation
-complete inability to focus, read, or write at all.
-despair and suicidal ideation
-wanting to give up, oblivion

High
-full of energy
-excited, happy, hyped up, euphoric
-high self-esteem, grandiose thinking
-poor decision making
-sudden high productivity (a.k.a. going from lying on the bed unable to move and wanting to die (low state) to suddenly bouncing around the house and impulsively painting/recording music frantically) but no self direction/self control.
-impulsive behaviour
-ideas
-talkativeness, fast taking
-dancing about

This description is as an outsider. My aunt was diagnosed as bipolar, but I suspect she probably has Aspergers too. She's 87 now and has had some ministrokes and mild dementia as a result, so is unlikely to get a diagnosis now.

Manic episodes
She would spend a fortune on junk from second hand shops that she had no use for (kids clothes, etc)
Singing all night - 'Onward Christian Soldiers' for 24 hours
Escape - went to a seaside town, without telling anyone where she was going, there was a frantic search for her

Depressive episodes
Suicidal - attempted it a few times
Shame - would go on and on about about how much she had put the family through, unaware that these speeches were putting the family through even more
Paranoia

She could be in an episode for many months at a time and would often be hospitalised. I don't think she was in touch with reality. Today, her swings aren't all that apparent and she's in a nursing home. But, for a few weeks she has been saying that one of the residents is swearing and smoking. The man she is talking about has a learning disability and can only say a few words, none of them are swear words and he doesn't smoke. It could be the dementia, but my mum says she's been like that all her life. My mum is 10 years younger than her, but has always been like the older sister.

I get mood swings too, but not like her and they don't last as long. I worry about my daughter as she seems a bit like this too. She can go into hyper-speak (I don't know how else to describe it). She'll talk constantly, very upbeat and happy and loves everything about everything. But, then she can go into silent moody teenager mode (she's only 5) and growl every so often. I hope she's just like me and not my aunt.

This sounds very similar to me, before I was on a mood stabilizer, except your depressions don't seem as severe.
I am very convinced that mood disorders appear clinically different in persons with comorbid AS. This I think confuses a lot of psychiatrists, because you don't sound like a "typical" bipolar person, if there is such a thing. I never have euphoric mania, when I am up I have extreme agitation and my mind races and I have zero concentration. I never have melancholic depression (I don't feel sad) but I do have anhedonic depression. I have difficulty feeling emotion and my motivation goes to zero. It is physically impossible for me to feel pleasure when I'm depressed. It is difficult for me to do anything. I have lost jobs because of this and have been suicidal in the past. I get stuck in that state and I have a difficult time getting out.

I definitely have Aspergers and am also bipolar. LIfe can be difficult at times and I need medication. Being bipolar for me is way worse than Aspergers. I have had many days where I just wish my brain would work right, I mean I always feel screwed up somehow.
I accept my autistic differences and can manage them, but I truly feel that my bipolar disorder is going to kill me one of these days.

I really feel for you. Having both AS and bipolar makes life very difficult sometimes.
You really need a mood stabilzer. Taking an ssri by itself if you are bipolar will make you manic. Hopefully you are working with your psychiatrist trying to find a good combination. Take care of yourself.

I am similar in that over my past history I've gotten mostly anhedonic depression as opposed to melancholic depression. I find my highs tend to shift between euphoria and extreme agitation/anxiety (although it's more difficult to recognize this as a "high").



Thankyou for your support, it has been hard at the moment. The first psychiatrist I was seeing actually did diagnose me with bipolar 2, and put me on lithium, but the problem was that our communication was poor because I don't think she understood AS enough. I ended up going to another psychologist who was an AS specialist, but she de-diagnosed me from bipolar 2 and said it was possible my symptoms were caused by a combination of untreated ADHD and severe depression. She put me on some stimulants and an anti-depressant, and took me off lithium - needless to say things did NOT go well. Last meeting she pretty much said she couldn't figure it out and eventually referred me onto another psychiatrist who specializes in bipolar type 2.

It will be nice to have a clear diagnosis, a psychiatrist who actually understands how I function, and some proper medication.

I tend to agree with this. My moods switch between up and down, sometimes several times a day. Doesn't seem to be much middle ground. I'm not manic exactly, but I go from a mental lethargy to high intensity and back again.

My mania is more like hypomania but I do get the delusions which automatically would make it mania. I have schizoaffective disorder and not just bipolar even though its the bipolar type. I mainly experience depression and not the mania.
Mania symptoms:
Hyper productive with my art (I once did a picture that normally takes several weeks to complete in just 2 days!)
Grandiose delusions such as thinking my art is worth millions and how to spend the money
Rapid speech
Very little concentration
I have to keep on moving constantly and can't keep still
I spend a little more but not out of control thankfully because I have a fear of losing everything I own normally and that keeps it limited
Racing thoughts with all my big plans
Depressive symptoms:
I feel hopeless
worthless
sad
cry (sometimes a lot of the time I have to force myself to cry)
no energy
much smaller appetite
I walk and move slower (unless I am completely paranoid in which I have to move quickly)
sometimes suicidal
no interest in things any longer

Bipolar and Aspergers is seemingly disabilitating. (If my spelling, words are bad, forgive me. Just got back from a therapy session, and very tired/emotional/depressed). The frustration with not being able to communicate well or have many friends just adds to the anxiety and the depression. If you're not 'different' enough with the Asperghers, when you get into a hyper/manic/grandiose phase around people, you act even more 'different' and it disturbs people more.
I mostly deal with the depression phase, but then I get little random bursts of energy/manic where I'll just suddenly clean, do laundry, go on a walk for a straight hour or so, and then out of no where I'll get really tired and depressed again.
Or if I have high anxiety, I get manic and get a thought into my head. I went out of town and was staying at my Aunt's when I suddenly had an anxiety attack and the only thing I could think of was 'I have to go home." over and over again. I packed up, said "I'm leaving", got in the car, and drove the 8 hour drive home. Instead of waiting for morning to come, I left in the afternoon and got home after midnight.
When I was a child, I was diagnosed with ADHD, then later with depression. Just lately I've been diagnosed with the Asperghers, and the diagnosis with bipolar 2 fits me perfectly. I've been on Celexa for the past 10 years, and it's helped with my depression phases, but it's not been working as of late, and I have too much going on for me to mess with my medication again, so I'm just having to deal with my depression medication not working like it used to.

I had a similar pattern; I was first diagnosed with Asperger's at age 12, then I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 16, and diagnosed with major depression at age 21 (although I had had major depressive episodes years before that, it was the first time I received any medication for it - it was a very low dose of SSRI and I got better very suddenly and then stopped taking it after only a month or so, which should have struck me as strange but didn't at the time...). We were always doubtful about my ADHD diagnosis in a way we weren't about the Asperger's and depression. I just didn't seem to fit the ADHD criteria properly.

Haha, me too!

to the OP: sorry to post so much in the one thread, all this still feels like a big discovery to me.

I have been diagnosed with neither, but I am fairly certain I have both, and I experience pretty much exactly what you described. I find it impossible to concentrate, and worse, I find it impossible to stop thinking. My brain goes a mile a minute and jumps between thought trains like mad.

Loud music, cold showers, good food, and for a while, intoxicating substances were my self medications, but I wouldn't recommend the last one for any serious long-term relief.

moved from General Autism Discussion to Bipolar, Tourettes, Schizophrenia, and other Psychological Conditions

Actually, I went to support group for bipolar persons. I just couldn't relate to anyone there--the main topics were all about how the depressions were hard on their family and how it screwed up their interpersonal relationships. When I explained how I felt--it kept going back to how hard it was for their friends and spouses etc. Yeah, whatever, how about how it effects me. It was a group environment and it was totally unhelpful.

I met a psychologist that felt I had Aspergers which I understand, however he felt I was "just" depressed because I had trouble interacting socially. I could not convince him that my severe depressions had a life of their own and it was debilitating. I was not "just" depressed because I could not get along with others. I also saw a psychiatrist at that time (I needed medication or I wouldn't be here!) that dismissed Aspergers as a problem but wasn't sure what to make of my mood disorder (which was obvious). I suggested bipolar but she said I wasn't like one of those people.

I need to see a psychiatrist because I have learned throughout my life that the only way to deal with my mood disorder (I have tried to go without twice and almost died!) is with medication.
Anyway I could have been the posterboy for Aspergers growing up and I didn't have problems with bipolar disorder until I was about 18. Anyway it has been hard because Aspergers is a fairly recent diagnosis (I was a kid in the 80s, so it was different), and actually the understanding about mood disorders in general was not well understood until fairly recent. All the discussion seemed to focus on mania and bipolar depression was not taken seriously until later.

I clearly have both but I seem to relate better with aspies than bipolar persons. For me, personally, I view my autistic traits as part of who I am, I've always been that way. I view my bipolar disorder as more of a disease that I need to keep medicated to function. I never have euphoric manias, I just get extreme agitation and there is nothing positive or enlightening about it My depressions are severe and cause me great difficultly because I find it difficult getting stuff done. For some people having bipolar makes them feel more creative and enlightened--I am not one of those people.
Anyway my life is frustrating and it sucks to have both problems. Anyway a mess--I don' t want to rant any more about.

I just have to ask: doesn't it really complicate things when you have both schitzoaffective and ASD, as oppossed to just having one or the other.