Do I Have Bipolar Disorder
I first started to wonder do I have bipolar disorder about 10 years ago. At that time, I was going through a state of excitement and inspiration. Out of nowhere, I felt filled with vigor and energy. I would stay up all night, painting, drawing, or just wandering around town looking for adventure. It was hard for me to understand that this wasn't normal behavior. It felt so incredibly ecstatic and fun that I could not see that there was anything wrong with it. Nonetheless, when I lost my job after my sleeplessness caused me to miss work, I started to wonder do I have bipolar disorder
I looked at the symptoms of bipolar disorder, and some of them really seemed to check out. I really was in an excited state, and all my friends had commented that it wasn't normal. I wasn't really familiar with psychiatric illness at the time, so it was pretty hard for me to imagine that I was a manic depressive. Nonetheless, the evidence was there. When I went into a psychiatrist to see find out do I have bipolar disorder, he broke it down for me. The issue, he said, wasn't so much whether or not I am bipolar, but how well I was functioning. If I had bipolar disorder but was doing alright, it didn't matter. If I didn't have bipolar disorder but was having trouble meeting my own obligations, it could be a serious problem.
I thought about his formulation for a while, and it really made sense to me. I decided that I really needed help. Only a qualified psychiatrist could really answer the question do I have bipolar disorder with any accuracy, but the fact remained that my life was off track. I was missing out on my obligations in a way that was throwing my friends off. I need to get medicated and get better if I could.
Once I started getting on the medication, my behavior and mental states soon stabilized. Within a few weeks, I was feeling more normal and acting more stable. The doctor had explained to me that the answer to the question do I have bipolar disorder had a lot to do with how I reacted to treatment. If he tried to treat me and the the treatment didn't take, it probably wasn't mania. When I responded the way I did, however, it became clear what my issues were. I had a relatively mild form of mania that could be treated with continual medication, and a doctor made it clear that I would be able to live a completely normal life. I'm glad that I went in, because I feel a lot more stable the way I am now.
