BiPolar Disorder or Depression?

In this video, adolescent psychiatrist, Dr. Judith Joseph, discusses why people are most often misdiagnosed when it comes to BiPolar Disorder and Clinical Depression.

00:00 Intro
00:35 High functioning depression v major depression
02:05 Depressive episodes are not depression
02:32 Why hypomania & mania signs are missed
03:46 How someone grows up with bipolar misdiagnosis

#depression #medcircle #mentalhealthawareness #mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #bipolar2 #bipolar #bipolardisorder #clinicaldepression

[liezl]

I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. I stuggled for years with it, despite being medicated. I landed in a psychiatric hospital where they diagnosed me with Bipolar Disorder. We changed my meds from Anti-depressants to moodstabilzers and I've been stable for 4 years now. Misdiagnosis is a major issue.

[pimlico]

If it's a woman of reproductive age, I think PMDD should be a part of the discussion. It can seem like bipolar but really it's a sharp drop in hormones during the luteal phase and can be predicted like clockwork. Sometimes it's not a psychological disorder but a hormonal one with psychological symptoms.

[jeanettw]

I think you should cover the opposite as well.
A lot of people with depression become diagnosed with bipolar, due to anger issues. Because there's a misconception that you have a lot of anger while you're bipolar, while that's actually a feature of depression instead.

[elisha]

I know this video was made many years ago, however I served in the army for over a decade. When I come back from a very difficult tour of Iraq, where I was a A&E medic I started having pretty severe PTSD symptoms. I asked for help and was told to toughen up and made to feel “weak” in comparison to everyone else who was just “getting on with it” less than a year later I found myself pregnant with my son, all I ever wanted to be was a mum so for a short while I felt I’d been given a second chance of happiness and to focus on all the wonderful aspects that motherhood had waiting on me. I didn’t understand it at the time, but all I was doing was suppressing these feelings, almost like constantly cramming things into a cupboard till one day everything comes spilling back out. This happened when I had my son, instantly and I mean instantly It was like this wash of sheer dread overcome me as he was being held up to show me this beautiful dreamed and prayed for baby. No instant rush of love nothing just absolute fear. I ended up with what was also undiagnosed postnatal psychosis. The army however decided because I was talking fast and seemed agitated, and the fact I had said I was scared my son had been sent as a punishment for a mistake I made on tour which I won’t get into but yeah, even then they didn’t think wait a second? Traumatic tour just before pregnancy now this, 2+2=4? Well no the army said it =Bipolar and because I argued and protested this wasn’t right and that I wouldn’t be taking anything they where giving me, they deemed me as paranoid and aggressive and sectioned me. In the psych ward I was basically bullied and worn down till I complied with starting on antidepressants, antipsychotics and a mood stabiliser. All of which were extremely high doses and left me a shadow of the women I was, I can’t even remember that period clearly as I was so medicated and unable to function. Anyway things got worse but somehow I found myself pregnant with my beautiful daughter who was a twin. I wasn’t taken off the sodium valproate which is a huge no in pregnancy especially during the 1st trimester however the army refused the take me off the SV and I miscarried one of my baby girls. During this time I was sectioned for a sectioned time as I refused to take my meds again, screaming and crying, begging someone to listen to me. No one did, in the end they convinced me at the age of 26 to be sterilised as I was told what I had done (coz I got pregnant on my own 💀) was selfish and that I was already unstable and unable to be a good mum to my son and wife to my then husband and how I’d acted recklessly. I was shouted at and told that I was ruining everyone arounds me life by not accepting my illness and that I’d never be a good mum or wife if I didn’t do just that. So in the end again I complied had my daughter and was “ok” ex husband left when she was only 6 weeks old, the army medically discharged me saying I was unfit for military service. My life my career everything was over including as I said my marriage. I eventually got the correct diagnosis of PTSD in 2015 and was slowly and carefully taken off all the meds I’d been given by the army. The two psychiatrists I seen upon my discharge where horrified to put it mildly and since then I’ve been trying to build my life back up. I should add the only reason I got to see these psychiatrists to eventually get my correct diagnosis and help was through having to fight for 16 months to have my children returned to my care after there dad removed them claiming my bipolar made me unable to care for them the way him and his now wife could. That I couldn’t provide a stable home etc etc I was unpredictable you get the idea ? I eventually did win the custody of my children back however as it stands on the 7th of October 2023 im still fighting for justice, even an apology from the MOD and waiting on a request I have made to have the incorrect diagnosis placed on my discharge medical records changed. So far nothing has happened. No apology nothing just a women at 37 desperately trying to understand why. I’d like to add I’ve been off all antipsychotic/mood stabilisers for over a decade and been “Asymptomatic” all that time

[mercuryli]

It's far too common to see kids being diagnosed with Bipolar because of trauma. A lot of times their symptoms are extremely low distress tolerance, irritability and poor impulse control. Those kids are prone to having affect dysregulation episodes. Their concentration is usually also poor. However those symptoms do not indicate a manic episode as a lot of school teachers mistakenly believe. Parents too. What they see is a kid who's often stuck in a hyper-aroused state. Then they think their kid is manic. A lot of the adult clients have that misunderstanding too. They mistake hyper-arousal for mania, and then shape their chief complaints around that misunderstanding.

[DrLeifSmith]

I also find that many women are MISDIAGNOSED as Bipolar when they are actually suffering from a personality disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). I've been a clinician over 20 years and I see this on a monthly basis in my clientele. Such a big mistake to focus and label acting out behaviors as mania. Such a disservice, also, to these women. (BPD clients are typically female).

[ashbags]

I was diagnosed with MDD, however I feel that I actually have Bipolar 2. How do I bring this up to my psychiatrist and/or therapist in a way that they would take seriously and not brush off?

[perryloggins]

This is me. 26 years of having bipolar 1 and now 2 with severe depression. Treatment resistant.

[dodgdurango]

I have moments where I’m so suspiciously happy that it doesn’t feel real. Then my depression is more physical and mental, not emotional. that’s how it is on my meds. Off my meds, I’m completely a wreck, talking my ass off verbalizing my worry and throwing things.

[justinhawsakajaybird]

Do you take online patients through telethealth, etc? Thank you

[annabrown]

My 91 yr old Father who has Alzheimer's, has tried to hurt himself a couple of times without a history of depression or mental illness . They seem to be isolated events.
His only sister with elderly dementia, tried to harm herself and voiced wanting to die before her natural death.
One of his brothers in his later yrs with dementia died from suicide.
No one in the family is aware of mental in illness, however, coming from generations of let's not talk about anything like that, makes me wonder if there is a correlation between them?
I would greatly appreciate Medcircle opinion.
This channel is very helpful.
Ty🙏

[dazecoredream]

I got extremely depressed in the beginning of 2021 and it lasted two years. Interestingly enough during those two years, I had these periods of around a week to a month long where I would get extremely high in energy while still maintaining the depressive mindset and my nihilistic delusional content. This would present externally as severe anger. It would get so bad that I would be driving 110 mph on the highway, often yelling + breaking/throwing shit in my house at 4am, etc... I just assumed that it was just the depression until I first experienced a more typical non-angry psychotic manic episode around two months ago. Problem with that is I shrugged it off and didn't tell my doctor. It took two and a half years of constant episodes to get diagnosed, but I'm luckily a little more stable now.

[jacknjill]

What’s the big difference btwn bipolar and schizophrenia? Wondering bc my ex said she was diagnosed bipolar, but she lies often and I think its more schizophrenia.

[drdolittle]

As a clinician I want to admit that many people who met a physician during their depressive episodes and who later turn out to have BPD, unfortunately only during their depressive episodes feel "ill" and needy. When they're not depressive they try to convince nearly everybody that they're as healthy (normal) as everybody else... i.e. there's a huge amount of denial working in those patients and if clinicians are not aware of transference and countertransference phenomenons they're lost concerning getting aware what really is going on in those people. Moreover, many of them people with BPD I myself have met often have been very charismatic people who were very gifted and moreover, my experience is that they have a huge need to be accepted - as well as narcissists do have this need. Thus, even for clinicians it's not easy to discover their vulnerability and their need for help if they themselves deny their dependency needs.

[patriciawhite]

And diet...and screen time..both parents and kids..

[annaburns]

I used to think that my husband and I could help each other with our depression since we both had. But later I realized that while I had clinical depression he was bipolar. ( Or we could possibly both have bpd— who knows! )

[jonanon]

Is it just my computer or is the zoom twitching in and out?
It's really distracting and annoying,

[kraytas]

I dont know what i have. Ive been told i have either MDD and BPD. but i also have adhd😅

[DrMukhtarYerima]

Bipolar disorder is actually a group of disorders that include bipolar type I and bipolar type II disorders. Bipolar type I disorder is diagnosed when there is at least 1 manic or mixed mood episodes that usually alternate with a depressive episode. It is more severe than bipolar type II disorder which presents with hypomanic mood episodes that alternate with a depressive episodes.

[Mark-qtux]

There are people who make up fake problems that’s aren’t real as well and put on an act with fake negative problems that aren’t real. Even negative emotions can be masked and acted out and aren’t real and you would never know.