My psych suggested by my "Depression" may actially be misdiagnosed rapid-cycling Bipolar II.

[Odin2005]

He said BiII is often misdiagnosed as Depression because people with it only get help when they are having a depressive episode

Yikes!!! :yoiks:

[elleng]

1. How can one tell?

Well, I guess I can figure that out. Do you agree, or think he might be right?

[Odin2005]

2. I'm assuming so, he prescribed me a mood stabilizer, hope it works.

[no name no slogan]

3. It's mostly based on past history

I had a similar change in my diagnosis about three years ago. I only discovered I was bipolar after I went over my history in detail, and also compared my periods of greatest stability with what medications I was on at the time.

After doing both of those, it turned out that I was most stable when I was taking a mood stabilizer (lithium) in addition to an anti-depressant. A psychiatrist at the Mayo Clinic was the one who figured that part out for me when I was hospitalized there for the second time in a three months back in 2007. Since they changed my prescription, things have been a lot more stable.

Bipolar disorder (especially Bipolar II) is misdiagnosed quite a bit, because it looks like a lot of other diseases (in particular, depression combined with ADHD). They are discovering, more and more, that certain types of depression respond better to mood stabilizers than they do to anti-depressants, which makes you wonder what the real diagnosis should be.

[elleng]

4. Thanks for the info, no.