Bipolar Type II Support Group

Is this familiar??

After concealing & coping with BP2 for a long time, I ran out of ability to conceal & cope with it, and ran into the wall of extreme depression & dysfunction. Extremes of depression, attention problems, even physical trembling & speech problems.

What I'm struggling to adjust to is the notion that everything I thought was cause and consequence in the symptoms, is actually juxtaposed. Bored & alone because I'm depressed, not the other way around. And so on with career, business, and pretty much everything.

Welcome to the forum sstvp,

I haven't experienced this so can't really give you much feed back on it.

I did go through something like that when I was not medicated and was dealing with severe depression. I put up a front for 4 years then I hit a brick wall ad everything fell apart. I was a real mess. It took a long time but eventually got on the right medications and my life got better.

I hope yours does too.

Welcome to the group! I am struggling with that myself right now. It's hard to change perspectives. I was diagnosed last year in March.

Post edited by: InvisibleMe, at: 06/05/2011 03:47 PM

I've been diagnosed for years, and sometimes I just have to take a step back and say "Whoa! Hold on, I have bipolar???" and I adjust myself accordingly, mainly by accepting what is a life long illness. It's hard to do.

I've been struggling from the "chicken or the egg" syndrome too! I'm depressed because I'm bored and alone. This high energy, super productive, perfectionist persona is the best of me.

Now what I'm hearing is the opposite. I'm depressed so I isolate myself and don't find enjoyment in my daily life, and those really good times are actually examples of hypomania?

Not only am I having a hard time reconciling myself to this, my family is so confused too! Hubby is going with me to my pdoc appt. on Wednesday. Hopefully he'll get a better view of things after that.

Mellydramatic, please let us know how your joint appointment went. I hope it goes well.

I hit my wall too. Just got married AND diagnosed all at once. It feels impossible to handle. Before the diagnosis and marriage I could retreat home by myself and feel however I was feeling, then pick myself backmup and go again the next day. Now, being married, I have someone around 24/7 that I have to keep up my act in front of. Impossible. I crashed. He says that I have a more negative attitude now that I have the diagnosis, but I say it's worse bc the pdoc keeps changing my Mede every two weeks. Mess or the attitude? Who knows. .

I relate in that I do believe the depression/hypomania came first for decades and lead to all the rest, not the other way around, although the result seemed to be the same.