Should I get tested for bi-polar as well?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm 14 and have been diagnosed with Aspergers since I was 10. Now my question is, the more I researched about Aspergers for myself (only started that recently, in fact that was how I found WrongPlanet), the more I became aware of the fact that I have pretty much all the signs and symptoms of Bi-polar disorder. I am aware that online tests are not 100% accurate, but I have taken about 5-6 of them to screen for Bi-polar and scored very highly on each one. So should I see a doctor and get a professional diagnosis? Would it be at all beneficial?

If you would like, it might be helpful for you to write here the reasons you think you might have Bi-polar Disorder and examples of how you meet the diagnostic criteria. However, it would indeed be best to discuss this with a Doctor. Bi-polar symptoms can get in the way of normal functioning, so treatment can be beneficial for those with Bi-polar Disorder.

I have pretty major mood swings at times, and pretty much all the symptoms of hypomania apply to me when I'm in a happy mood (Feeling unusually optimistic, unrealistic beliefs about my physical abilities, talking at such a fast rate that others cannot understand what I'm saying, I think about a million things a minute, I find it incredibly hard to concentrate on small things, I act on impulse, not caring about the consequences, I cannot sleep when I'm in one of these happy moods, and while unable to sleep, I have hallucinated before). On the other end of the scale, when I'm feeling down, I feel hopeless about pretty much everything, I am a lot more irritable and aggressive towards people for no reason, I feel extremely fatigued and weary, I have trouble sleeping, I'll get angry at someone and yell at them, and then feel really bad about it. Although I do have stretches in between of relatively normal behaviour, they never usually last more than a couple of weeks. Also the ecstatic moods only last a few hours, and I also have a really bad anger issue. I also have experienced symptoms of a mixed episode quite a lot.