Posted by banga on January 14, 2005, at 9:34:52
In reply to Can you be hypomanic for one day?, posted by D minor on January 12, 2005, at 23:39:41
Wht they are saying and what you seem to see is that your moods do fluctuate in an up and down way. This then could be logical that the pdocs think that, regardl;ess of diagnosis, you could be helped by mood stabilizers so yo feel more even-keel.
In terms of diagnosis, it is true that IF you went by the book, because your highs are not severe or very long, technically it may not be bipolar II.You would be tecnically speaking Mood Disorder NOS, with rapid cycling.
Or maybe, if the symptoms are not severe ( the depression nor hypomania don't totally disrupt your life) someone might say it is Cyclothymic Disorder--a condition where neither the highs don't qualify full mania or the lows full depression--if this problem doesnt totally disrupt yur life. Sort of like a mild bipolar. But again, because the length of your ups and downs aren't long enough, technically this wouldn't be right either.
This is all IF you went by the book, but many pdocs feel (and many patients!!) that the criteria are arbitrary, and give diagnoses even when you don't meet criteria because it is so similar, and you could be helped by treating it the same way.
But in any case it doesn't matter really, it sounds like your pdocs think it most appropriate to see it as needing the same treatment as bipolar disorder, regardless what the diagnosis is. And if it seems to help, that's the main thing.
Sorry if I got technical, this is probably way more than you wanted--but this knowledge was pushed into my mind and it's my technical resource I go to automatically. I myself don't meet criteria for bipolar--I dont have true hypomanias but am very depressed--but I feel I maybe should be treated as if I did have bipolar. I have a lot of relatives that have bipolar so maybe biologically I am like them. I wouldn't care what they said the diagnosis is--as long as it helped.
poster:banga
thread:441446
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050113/msgs/442085.html