I am positive that i am bi-polar

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I have Aspergers for a start anyway and my Dad is bi-polar (even though he is in denial about it)

I live in supported accomodation aimed at young people who need help with their lives.

Breakfast club is just something on in one of the communal flats for tennats and job club is something on in the same communal flat at a later time for tennants to look for jobs.

Sorry about the spelling I installed windows 7 and have not added the spell checked to firefox yet lol.....

What is everyones take on this?....


For the last wee while I have noticed a bit of a decrease in energy and motivation. It effects my mood and ability to concentrate and read. Also got less out of touch with music during the low period. I have been like this for years at least.

Today, after only sleeping from about 4 in the morning to 7 this morning when my alarm went off, although i stayed in bed half asleep till almost 8, I felt at first like I had a little bit more energy, felt more clear headed and felt calmer.

Then later on at the foyer I went to breakfast club and phoned up a waste aware to get recylcing bags. My mood was elivated for some reason and i felt energetic. Later at job club I felt like i had an abundence of energy again and when speaking with graham i was able to think very clearly and speak in depth with him about Greenpeace, about jobs and a few other things. I definitely was more motivated than I normally I am and I also spoke to the Belgium student working here and was able to speak to him about activities like going out for walks, swimming, the gym and explained to him in very precise detail about what i done to apply for the job.

When I went back home after I suddenly thought to myself that I really do have a lot of extra energy and realised that how i feel can vary from time to time. Sometimes I am "normal", sometmes i get low, then sometimes i get even lower. By low i dont feel depressed but just feel less motivated and have less energy. After this can continued for a while i can often flip to the opposit and have a lot more energy.

After realing that i was probably experiencing mania i got excited about it and it accelerated the effects of the additional energy and made my mind start to race. I was talking to Frank and wanted to say a million things at once and was trying to make more jokes than usual just for a laugh.

I walked to town with him and when i was with him again i felt like i was overwhelmed with energy, in a fantastically positive mood, could speak in great detail and my memory felt like it was improved.

Although my thoughts were now quite a lot more sped up I could still easily comphrehend my exact surroundings, situation etc very precisely. I do have a very acute sense of detail but i was picking up more information about my surroundings than usual but still able to process it all at the time.

I checked my bank balance and then went to a shop and tried to pay for something by card. My mind at that moment was so full of energy i typed in the wrong pin twice, then walked away to the bank machine again and remember my pin on the way back to it.

I now feel slightly calmer but still full of energy.

It may have already been obvious to most of you but the way i wrote that is very rushed and energetic compared to the way i would normally write.

It may be that you have cyclothymia, which is a much milder form of bipolar. It often goes undiagnosed unless it causes major problems and is often considered to be a personality trait rather than a disorder. I'm fairly sure I'm Aspergers + cyclothymia too, with "rapid cycling" where I can be full of energy and enthusiasm and a few hours later feeling tired and mildly depressed for no apparent reason. I think cyclothymia is sometimes comorbid with Aspergers. Try some of the online tests for it.

I just replied to the other thread you have on the meds. Did this start after you started prozac? I have to tell you my experience just for the record. I used to be on a cocktail of Effexor and Risoperdal, then Effexor and Lamictal, for bipolar disorder. I was diagnosed based on a lot of questions my first doctor asked. I didn't really have mood swings though. I think she based it on my sleeping problems along with severe depression. Well, taking the drugs actually caused me to be bipolar and I had some serious mania for a while. I have found out this year that I am not bipolar, I have ADHD and possibly HFA.

I would talk to your doctor about it and the possibility that the prozac is causing this cycling of moods- maybe it is temporary until you have been on your medicine for a while.

That sounds about right for me. The initial high is over now and I am a lot calmer but I still feel as though something is different now.

It has been for a lot younger than that. Can even remember going through the cycles when i was younger but would not notice any major differences apart from the cycles inself. Afterwards I felt "normal"

Can anyone answer if it common for the inital change to be very extreme at first then balance out closer to the middle after?

I also sometimes get what looks like a heat rash and feel nervous sometimes when I go through a cycle. Just red patches in random bits of my chest, shoulders and necks. It goes away after 10 minutes though. This has only happened to me maybe a dozen times in my life though.

I just wrote another post in another thread about BP and AS.

They are different, I think. I know that as many things as are identified as AS behavior I'd take in a heartbeat over the Manic highs and crash and burn lows - the loss of control of moods and life, with an attempt in the middle - being hospitalized with the nutsy folk creating a fear never equalled......

No, it's different I believe.

H.

I have family member with bi-polar disorder and know a few others, at times serious enough to require treatment with lithium, a strong mood stabilizer. The cycles definitely vary allot in magnitude, both from person to person and one cycle to the next.

What I have seen of mania, it itself is as debilitating as depressive episodes, sometimes more. Somewhat similar to what I quoted, It can be very hard to talk to someone when manic, because their mind is racing, far beyond what is comfortable. They quickly get frustrated that they cannot speak fast enough, when still talking to fast to be understood. I have never had a conversation with a person who is manic last very long.

It can be very hard for a person when manic to preform allot of tasks, because it is like you body moves far slower than you expect it to. Furthermore you mind is racing so fast it is hard to keep it on any one topic, you work on everything at once, but its hard to really accomplish anything. Even walking somewhere is hard because once you have moved toward anything, you have decided to do something else and are now going the wrong direction.

Lack of sleep, high does of caffeine, high stress levels ect. can make cycles more intense, and as with most of these kinds of things, being obsessed about it intensifies the problem. If you are having problems, I would try reducing these stressors, I have not heard good things about mood stabilizers. If the mania is not to the point of causing major distress or impaired judgement on an ongoing basis, you might want to be careful about using the word bi-polar.

It's kind of like the AS criteria which requires significant impairment to normal functioning



I think it's uncommon to remember the start of an episode, you just kind of end up there, but they do tend to sort of petter out over time

(Apologies if I misrepresented BPD)

Yeah that sounds like what has happened in this case. I was probably near the point of a high and I believe the lack of sleep helped trigger it properly.

So, I am going to see my doctor about it soon. What sort of reaction can I expect and what kind of things am I going to get asked? (UK doctors may be trained to tackle it differently, but not sure. Thought it would be worth mentioning though)

I have often wondered if I have a mood disorder as I can get very depressed and lethargic and sometimes too alert and energetic. I tried taking meds but it f*cked me up more.

In recent years I have come to believe my moods are affected by the seasonal changes we experience here (England) and in particular the levels of light available.

So rather than think I am bipolar or have a mood disorder I reckon I am just an aspie who is extremely sensitive to light.

Research has been carried out on light and mood and it was found that light from the blue end of the spectrum seems to stimulate our wake/sleep cycles and also affect our mood.

Maybe you are sensitive to light. Try to note the season and light levels when your moods change. I would avoid the meds if I were you. After a while you become physically dependent.

I've been a lot calmer today and feel what i almost believe to be "myself" once again but i have it at the back of my mind that there is something different about me. the language i use when speaking to people is also slightly different i think but it just feels natural even though i can sense a bit of a difference in some way.