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Bipolar Diagnosis and Drug Abuse

Posted by garnet71 on February 17, 2009, at 16:46:41

Hmm..Looks like some psych educated people here. Maybe someone could take a look at this situation and offer an opinion? I am going to ask my own PDoc about this next month, although he probably wouldn't have the time to talk about another's case. Many thanks.

Someone very close to me has been caught up in substance abuse most of her life. When she abruptly quit heroin/oxycontin/alchohol (and other things) she had a manic breakdown within a month and a half. She was not getting treatment, she did it alone and when she started a new job, had major other problems, including past criminal activity she was dealing with, car wrecked/no transportation, major financial problems, no health insurance, staying with abusive/unhealthy mother, and more, along with the emergence of life emotions she had never processed while continually high, she had a meltdown.

She was rapid cycling with extreme mania, paranoi and delusions; a bit of hallucinating. She was given a dual diagnosis for substance abuse/bipolar.

My question is, how would anyone know if she truly has bipolar disorder, or if it was just temporary from quitting drugs? Or once you have a "mental breakthrough" (breakdown) - does that mean in ALL cases, the person has a permanent condition?

I heard from the NA people (who are very wise, btw) that everyone who quits abusing hard drugs becomes bipolar. Is this temporary for some people?

I'm concerned she is going to be permenantly on meds and will never get a true diagnosis as someone who has not been on illegal drugs for over a year.

She takes lithium and Wellbutrin; has gained a lot of weight. I'm concerned about her health.

She goes from PDoc to PDoc in training as she is in the Medicaid system. Hope someone out there knows about this.

Thanks,
Garnet

 

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poster:garnet71 thread:880758
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090214/msgs/880758.html