Depression or bi polar

[PunkyFish]

Hi

I'm not to sure where to post this but here I go. For the past few months or so I've noticed I've been experiencing mood swings. In a day I can wake up feeling normal and by lunch time I'm depressed and then by mid evening I'm normal again. Other days I feel depressed for most of the day and other days I'm positive and generally ok. A friend suggested I may have bi polar so I've booked to go to my GP. I don't seem to get the mania part of bi polar or if I do I only get it mildly although after looking on the internet I do seem to have some of the mania symptoms such as getting angry easily, agitation, lack of concentration and ability to remember things, racing thoughs ect.

I was wondering if anyone on the forum had bi polar and could offer any advice. :smile:

[AnxiousBaker]

Do you suffer from anxiety as well? All these symptoms could point towards a mood disorder but they are also common in anxiety. Anxiety can cause mood swings as can regular depression.

[Tufty]

I'm not bipolar but I think it's a condition many of us with anxiety and depression have considered and worried about.
Mood swings are normal, our moods change frequently throughout the day and I guess it's the degree of change and how you react to a change in your feelings that would give you a bipolar diagnosis. The symptoms that you list do not point towards bipolar - more a mixed anxiety/depression state.
Try to remember there's an invisible line between mental good health and illness, its very subjective. I looked into bipolar quite extensively after having adverse reactions to medication and feeling that I was not 'normal' and would advise you to be cautious with some of the online mental health information sites. Try to stick to UK assessment guidelines, we tend to be conservative in our diagnosis of bipolar and avoid medicalising normal variations in moods. I'm not saying that having a diagnosis is not helpful because I believe it can be invaluable, I know someone who was diagnosed recently and it has enabled him to get the right medication and he has never felt better - just be careful with whom you consult.
Sam x

[NoPoet]

Cyclical moods seem to be quite common in anxiety, especially with people who are starting or coming off meds. I've got personal experience of moods rapidly changing between anxious, depressed and recovered. Once your body adapts to medication, or your self-help starts to take effect, you will find that over time you don't "lurch" from one state to another so quickly or easily.

Bear in mind that as humans, we are a collection of states of being which change regularly. So one day you might be super-anxious, another highly motivated, a third lethargic and bad-tempered, a fourth outgoing and positive. No mood - bad or good - lasts forever. The "normal" mood for a human being is euthymic, which is kind of neutral, not particularly emotional, with your thoughts and behaviour showing positive, optimistic traits. The euthymic state is probably designed to give our bodies a rest now and then since emotions can be expensive.

If your moods have changed rapidly from one extreme to the other throughout your life, you might be on the bipolar spectrum, but this is not the same as having bipolar disorder. Bipolar is characterised mainly by its manic phase during which you would be able to go for days without sleep, you'd exhibit bizarre and highly noticeable behaviour and you'd be extremely creative, highly sociable and so forth.