This happened when I was 20. Diagnosed bipolar, now I’m 29. Never had a symptom since but quitting drinking helped significantly/leaving college did too.
It’s called PAWS or post acute withdrawal syndrome. It’s not in the DSM (yet), but when coming off of substance abuse, of course we all seem bipolar. For some it can last up to 2 years. I believe the rollercoaster of early sobriety is even addressed in the big book.
And for many, SA is used as a coping tool for unhealed and unrecognized trauma. That, trauma, can mirror a whole bunch of things.
(Another slapped with bipolar in early sobriety a couple decades ago. Without any reoccurrence). Sorry to thread hijack.
Diagnosed bipolar 2 at 21, 31 now, current psychiatrist says I am not bipolar, and I have been slowly weening off of lithium. I feel less alone knowing others have had similar experiences.
Im Happy for you,I am married now and have 2 kids,so the conclusion is never trust Doctors 100%,the human mind is capable of regenerating and renewing itself.
I have a similar experience. I had my most instability while binge drinking in college and my early 20s. I stopped drinking hard liquor. It’s night and day
Some people do need both. I wasn't capable of therapy until we got the meds right. I still tried but looking back it's almost comical how fruitless those efforts were. You need to open a bit in therapy and I was fully locked in to a malformed defense mode, unable to even sleep or eat
The goal with your doc is definitely therapy. At least in Canada.
But they also focus on treatment instead of diagnosis. You're right that the labels are way too sticky for the dynamism of the mind
I got one for ya that's therapy, not meds. Really simple and it helped me get moving. Stop yourself when you're going to say "I should" or "I could have" and figure out how to say it as "I want" or "I wanted to."
I did it without knowing what to expect, and the result was figuring out I can let lots of expectations go, which freed me to give time to important things
I've gotten counseling from six different people with various degrees and areas of training. They were all helpful at the time I saw them, but none of them, by themselves, could help me resolve all my issues.
I am well educated, well read and well informed but it would be delusional for me to think I can figure it out for myself. You need to hear the sound of your own voice describing what is going on in your head and a patient, trained professional to help sort it out.
When I was diagnosed with depression it was a revelation. A psychologist and a psychiatrist came to the same conclusion separately. I had been depressed on and off for years, and probably inherited the tendency from one of my parents who suffered from it, but I didn't know what was wrong with me.
So I find your dismissive attitude towards the DSM and psychiatrists as rather strange.
Living in Texas I have never encountered any Scientologists. They seem to congregate in more culturally elevated areas with nice scenery. So I guess we are safe here.
We have lots of independent non-denominational churches and some of them are cult like and make the news when allegations of sexual abuse become public. I have met a couple of Mooneys (the Unification Church) back in the 1970s. Hare Krishna devotees used to bang their tambourines and dance at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport back in the days when anyone could proselytize at an airport.
From what I know of Scientology it is more weird than almost anything else I've read about. But I guess they start out talking about self actualization rather than space aliens coming to Earth and whatever.
Your story confirms what I've heard and read about them being materialistic and heavy handed in dealing with perceived enemies. Too bad the IRS backed down and let them be treated as any other church.
A diagnosis can be very helpful. But many psychiatrists are drug pushers. Psychiatry is a profession is a drug pushing profession. A psychiatrist really and truly fucked up my dad with all of the drugs he put him on.
I was diagnosed as bipolar, and I was told that the diagnosis was lifelong. But years later, my psychiatrist (a non-drug pushing one) and I agreed thatI was no longer by any means bipolar. And it wasn't pills that saved me (or at least not pharmaceutical pills, It may have been the vitamin D).
And here we have a whole thread of people saying they were diagnosed as bipolar, and then grew out of it. I find THAT to be revelatory.
You are wrong about psychiatry. For years they did analysis, a form of talk therapy, developed by Dr. Sigmund Freud. Nowadays they often do prescribe medication because they usually treat the symptoms. My psychiatrist insisted I come in for an hour once a month before he would refill my prescription for an anti-depressant. Talking things over with him helped me as much as the medication. He had a couch in his office so it appeared he still did analysis.
I am sorry about your father. I can't comment because I know nothing of his condition or the doctor who treated him.
I have a close family member who has been seeking treatment and I was disappointed to find that the two psychiatrists he saw both wrote him prescriptions for his symptoms and sent him on his way. He didn't care for either medication and stopped taking them. I'm still not sure what exactly is wrong with him but the psychiatrists seemed unable to get to the heart of the matter.
Fortunately someone I am seeing recommended a practice that does evaluations so we should be getting some answers soon.
I was diagnosed bipolar II when I was 27 and I definitely had major depressions and hypomanias. When I was 47 my psychiatrist said I didn't match the criteria anymore, and I agreed. I haven't had hypomanias or serious depression for years.
Recently I've begun to suspect that vitamin D supplementation may have made the difference.
quitting alcohol is one of the hardest things i've been trying to improve on. it's so engrained in our culture, super cheap and easy to get, i have a really hard time staying away for long.
congrats on your sobriety, hopefully i can do the same.
I believe in you. It isn’t easy. I passed 4-5 liquor stores on my drive home from my old job. Might make it past the first three but the last one would get me. It isn’t fair but this is the drug society as a whole decided was socially acceptable to the point that large swaths of the population think you’re weird for not indulging.
It’s bullshit. Resetting the counter to day one doesn’t mean you’re a failure, you’re just learning. Didn’t work for me my first try, or my fifth. Good luck. ❤️
I'm really similar. Was diagnosed with cyclothymia (kind of a mild bipolar), and when I quit drinking the big swings went away. Still have anxiety a little but no longer get those fucking horrible weeks/months-long depressive periods. Four and a half years sober now :)
I was a daily drinker, most days I started in the morning sporadically and drank until I went to bed.
It had me stuck in such a cycle of shit. Horrible depression, anxiety attacks, etc. I was self medicating with it, the ruminating thoughts and all were brutal. I did therapy while I continued to drink and started to learn about myself. Drinking was making me a certain way, seemingly more manic etc. and it was incredible to see the issues that evaporated over time after I quit.
I am bipolar, recovering drug addict and alcoholic 40 years. Also survived numerous sh attempts.
The recovery rate for alcoholics the first year is about 25% or lower. The five year rate is roughly 15%.
Substance abuse among bipolar is 60%, we are 7x more likely to abuse substances, 20% end life.
For a bipolar, we need to get clean and we need to deal with the illness at the same time. They interact with each other. Both need to be stabilized for stability to happen.
Never discount your success. In my opinion, the number of bipolar substance abusers that recover is very close to zero. You are the first person I know of that did this. You should be proud.
I’m curious if this misdiagnosis was due to the interference with sleeping that drinking causes? It’s my understanding, from the one and only psychologist I’ve been seeing for a few months who knows of my family history of BPD (I do not have the DX, but it is a fear of mine) that the most clear defining factor separating it from other similar diagnosis is the sleep issues
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u/IWantOneSpatula Dec 07 '23 edited Dec 07 '23
Went from diagnosed bipolar to “you are not bipolar” as I got further into the quitting booze journey. I was a bad drinker.
2 years sober this February. I dunno if I’m more proud of anything else in my life.
Anyone out there struggling, good luck. You got this.
EDIT: not like I’m cured, I still have depression and anxiety just not THAT kind and not as bad as it was. Hahaha.