Hi I'm new! I have just found this website after searching on the internet. I suppose I should explain a few things.

I'm 20, female and live in Scotland. I am rather flippant and nonchalant (and I cant spell) when it comes to my health and serious things.

I have been a self harmer for a few years now and recently my GP reffered me to a MH team. The CPN, after one assesment appointment and previous history, discharged me stating that I have no longstanding or severe mental illness, I only have BPD. The pyschiatrist that decided that I have this has never seen me and is teh only HCP I have met that thinks that is what I have, the rest all think BiPolar.

Anyway I am currently in a low phase, with the occasional days where I can get out of bed ( hence Im here!). This phase has lasted roughly 5 months, to my knowledge of BPD, the cycles dont last this long and BPD does not nessecarily come with a manic phase.

I am contesting the diagnonsense of BPD as I dont believe that is what I have. I guess I am looking for support that I am doing the right thing, that I am BiPolar not just a BPD sufferer thinking higher of thier status ( I know that BiPolar is no better then BPD, but the treatment is!).

Ok, I think that is enough for a first post, dont you?

Welcome to the boards! :)

Welcome to the Boards. First of all you are not stupid because you think you cannot spell. Everyone has words that they mess up on. Why don't you think you have BiPolar?

Did they put you on any meds? If so, do you mind letting us know what type.

Don't worry about how long your post is either. Keep posting because I can tell you once I found this web site I come here everyday just to help me keep my sanity somedays. It is better than the group therapy I use to have to go to.

I still have to go to my therapist and I am okay with one to one, its the group thing that I won't do. But here, its like group but much more comfortable.

Have a Great Night and God Bless :angel:

Sorry for any confusion, but I think I have BiPolar and so do BiPolar sufferers that I know.

I was on citalopram 60mgs daily then flueoxetine 60mgs daily. now I am on nothing, woot me!

I have no support at the moment but I am waiting for clinical pyschology, but until then I am all alone.

Hi, :)

I'm Paige, as if you couldn't figure that out due to my name. :P Anyway, I'm seventeen and also Bipolar. I'm on four meds right now; two mood stabilisers and two anxiety medications...but I'm still not completely stable. I know where you're coming from, though. I was thought to be depressed until I had a manic episode due to Zoloft. Why did you come off of your meds? Mine are my life saver...even if they're not working perfectly yet....

~~Paige

The meds were for depression, not bipolar.
And even when they told me that I was BPD they didnt give em any meds. I am fighting the BPD diagnoses to get a BiPolar one to get some form or help or recognition.

I have no support apart from me at the moment.

Paige - I know how you feel as i take my meds as prescribes and am not stable either. We still haven't found the right mix because I am never stable. I have started a mood chart to take to my shrink on Thursday. I take several meds also.

ThatDamnCat - How long will it take you to get in to see someone? Even though you don't think so you do have support here. I am sorry you don't have it close at hand. Alot of us feel we don't have support. Even though people have friends that are "supportive" doesn't mean they will ever be able to understand because they don't know what it is like. I am not saying everyone with BP1 feels that way but I do alot of the time.

Hang in there and everyone keep posting. It does help.

hmm, just reading up on BPD...and i'm wondering if i have that instead of BP. i was reading the NIMH website description of BPD: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/bpd.cfm.

anyway, regardless of whether you are BP or BPD it looks like they should be treating you with the same types of medication anyway. for example, when i read about BPD just now i was wondering if i have that and not BP, if the abilify i just started taking will be bad for BPD...but as it turns out antipsychotics are an appropriate treatment, as are the other BP drugs from the looks of it.

unfortunately i think i forgot to tell my pdoc that my sister has been dx-ed with not only BPII but BPD also. luckily my appt is next week.

I have a clinical pyschology appointment, but waiting lists for those are up to two years here, so I am in for a long wait, even with my Gp trying to rush my appointment.

In the UK BPD has just been relisted as a mental illness and a lot of Drs still dont think its anything serious or anything to bother treating.

I guess i just feel like giving up and giving into everything.

Hi, TDC ~ Welcome to the boards. So sorry that you are going through all of this. I assume BPD stands for Borderline Personality Disorder....correct me if I am wrong.

I think the reason that you cannot get a full BP diagnosis is because you have yet to experience a manic phase....just having a depressive component makes you fit into a unipolar diagnosis until you show otherwise. Over time that will come out but if your are depressed and a "soft Bipolar", meaning that you show many symptoms but don't fit in to what the DSM IV would diagnose a med such as Lamictal which is a mood stabilizer as well as an antidepressant may work out for you.

I must forewarn you that if you ARE Bipolar but have yet to be diagnosed being on an antidepressant alone could induce a mania which was the case with my daughter being treated fo Major Depressive Disorder. In the end it did help them to diagnose her Bipolar but it also caused her and our family a year of pain and suffering. I just thought I would mention that so you keep that in mind when on an antidepressant alone.

I hope that somehow you are able to get down to the bottom of this. I am not really familiar with the health care system but if it anything like the UK there are alot of hurdles involved in getting the proper Mental Health services. It may be free but there is always a tradeoff to that.

Good luck with everything and please continue to post. We are not here to judge anybody by their grammar so perhaps you can give yourself a little break when it comes to that!!;)

(((HUGS))) ~ Goody:angel: :wave:

Thank you for the replies- everyone.

Goody, I have actually had manic phases. Where I have woken up in someone elses house, apperently having had group sex! :eek:
Where I have went out and had random piercings, I am in a lot of debt, I cant remember times of my life, but I am later told what heppend. For example one I thought France would be a nice place to go and apperently I tried to jumo out of a 3rd floor flat to fly there :$
I made it to Birmingham, thats about 3/400 miles from where I live :(

I must admit to having only one manic episode since I stopped taking my AD's rather suddenly.

Oh and BPD is borderline, sorry, I am just used to using that.

(Goody- I struggle with grammer anyway, but thank you for noticing)

Im just wondering, does anyone else here self harm.

ThatDamnCat - No, I haven't done any self-harming but I am sure that there are some that do. You are not alone if you do. I had several years of the manic episodes so I relate to that side. The debt, the sexual promiscuity and I couldn't understand what was going on with me. I did all this before I was diagnosed. I had always been diagnosed with severe depression, generalized anxiety disorder and so on and so on until August of 06 that finally diagnosed the BP1. Once I started researching and reading about it all the things I had done started to make sense. It didn't make me feel any better about the things I had done and I am still having issues with it. I am working on it though.

Just hang in there and keep posting and hopefully it will help some until you can get the treatment you are waiting for. We are here for you always.

Sending Big (((((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))) to you.

Cheryl

The promiscuity is really bad and embarrasiing, though that could just be me.
I have done things that are so ashaming, yet at the time it was a good idea.

I was diganosed with clinical depression and severe self harm about 2 years, nothing was said or thought about if i might have anythign else. Even though I managed to get pregnant and broke bones. Even when my Gp questioned me about past appointments when I seemed to be 'manicly high' and 'not grounded' no one noticed. Until my ex counsellor asked if I had a diagnoses of anything other than depression.

I have researched and asked BiPolar sufferers that I know, they all say my behaviour is BiPolar-esque lol.

(I will even admit to the thinking that I am better than I am, and thinking that I can stop cars from running me over)