Bipolar II

I'm pretty sure that I have Bipolar II disorder.  I have struggled with depression for the past 10 years of my life, having episodes of severe depression and anxiety attacks. I've gone to my family dr over these past years & he's tried putting me on every anti depressant at one time or another. I could never stay on any of the anti depressants because of the severe side effects that affected me. I couldn't sleep or eat, I would sweat, hands would shake, and I remember 2 episodes that were really bad.  One day I was scrubbing my shower head with a toothbrush for hours and couldn't sit still & the other time was in the middle of the night & I felt like banging pots & pans very loudly in the house to wake everyone up because of how my mind was racing so badly.  I've read articles that SSRI's can do this to people with bipolar. What I am concerned about is that I am seeing a psychiatrist (after waiting a month to get to see someone about this) & I am concerned what type of side effects bipolar medication may have as well.  I don't think I have bipolar 1. I don't have extreme episodes of mania. Only short outbursts of anger & mood swings that go along with my depression. Is the medication the same for bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 or is it different?  Oh, I've also been on Klonopin for the past month since my last depression break down & that has really seemed to help mellow me out a bit & stop the extreme outbursts of anger.

Thanks for any help...

Thanks for your response, gaz.  Do you ever have periods where you feel fine & that nothing is wrong at all? I sometimes wonder if anything is actually wrong with me because of the periods where I am just fine. If something major happens...ex.: job change, a move in location, a breakup or relationship problems, or God forbid a death... I am a complete wreck. It's like these things "set me off" into a depression so deeply that I can't get out of it for weeks or more.  But I never really have the highs, just periods of what I would call being normal.  The reason I wonder about bipolar 2 is because of the mood changes from being ok to being deeply sad. Someone could say something to me to "set me off" and I could lash out at them. These scenarios along with how SSRI's made me feel is the reason I question bipolar 2.  Do you think it could be just depression with irritability?  How did they discover that you were bipolar 2? Are there tests for this? Thanks for your help again.

Hi gaz and Sally,

I just got out of the hospital and was diagnosed with bipolar II.  I was diagnosed with major depression about 10 years ago and medically discharged from the army.  I've been pretty depressed for about a year now again and started on zoloft again after not being on anything for a few years.  I noticed over the last couple of months that i've been feeling a little "too well."  Well, the crap hit that fan last weekend when i found myself in a jail cell for reckless driving and fleeing the police.  Fortunately noone was hurt.  The day after i posted bond, I became suicidal and my wife took me to the emergency room.  They diagnosed me with bipolar II and I am on zoloft and now depakote and am going through with outpatient therapy.  I've never been in trouble before, not even a parking ticket, so this was quite a shock to go through.   I've never been that hyper although looking back on it, I've definitely had the anxiety, a light mania, etc, but it was all under the surface.  Wow what a week.  So anyway, I saw your post and this is an introduction of sorts as well.  I've been looking for message boards and stuff as an outlet for understanding what's wrong with me and I found your post.  Thanks for posting.  I look forward to posting more.

 

Sally,

They usually go on your current/past moods, past manic or hypomanic history, your family history, and if you had a reaction or no reaction to meds (especially anti-depressants).  This is just to sum things, but it usually takes a few visits for them to determine stuff.  At least this was my experience.

As a teen I was diagnosed with depression, but I had a few hypomanic episodes and I didn't think anything of it then.  But as I got older I had less periods of depression and more hypomanic/mixed-states.  In 2005, I was diagnosed as BPII for about 1 1/2 years, but I had a mixed-state in August that changed my diagnosis to BPI.  But this was also after being on so many different meds and other stuff.

I hope that was helpful.