Bipolar misdiagnosis

There are a lot of women who are misdiagnosed with either bipolar disorder or depression instead of PMDD. Here is an article from a doctor in the UK who has noticed and documented these problems:

http://www.studd.co.uk/bipolar.php

I was also diagnosed bipolar some 15 years ago, and right from the beginning told every psychiatrist about my monthly mood swings. Ten years ago I'd read about how antidepressants taken for ten days a month could help relieve PMDD, although at the time I think I still thought of it as PMS, and asked a psychiatrist to help me think of how we could adjust the antidepressant I was taking at the time so that I'd up the dose during the worst days. I still remember her sheepish face and her saying she knows nothing about this but you can always try.

I very much liked the article you posted the link to, and I think every single woman diagnosed with bipolar should be checked very carefully to see if they have PMDD. A very common thing there that psychiatrists all over the years just continue neglecting. I'm very critical when it comes to psychiatrists in general and will never trust a single one of them again.

Now I'm wondering how I can safely stop ovulation though.. I have estriol cream here (and a progesterone cream too) but I cannot find good information on how to use it safely and to stop ovulation.

Hah, stop ovulating, spray some Synarela up your nose for a few weeks, makes you     Or maybe snort the progesterone and estradiol cream and see how that works, all at random just as the gyns tell us to do to test stuff and experiment and bring us so close to  

I guess the bipolar symptom right now for me is the lovely mixed episode. Lovely. I almost did some verbal   yesterday, my neighbors' behavior in the laundry room and just in general I think that's one of the worst things, or the total despair depression? But I'm only self destructive when depressed, during the mixed episodes I'm a disaster waiting to happen for everyone I run in to. And, this happens every month. Give me just the bipolar, please... Oh, and of course, I'd be the happiest person on earth if I had just PMS, and bipolar that would give me symptoms maybe once a year. Yes, give me a severe depression once a year, not every month   and if that makes someone   well rightfully so.

Yea really! Bipolar can at least BE TREATED!!! (You are having too much fun with these smilies.. lol!!!)

By "treatable" I guess I meant that there are people who are successfully treated even though they do live with it forever.. but managing it kind of like diabetes.. (I haven't seen any "success stories" as far as PMDD that didn't involve surgery or chemical menopause.. or it kind of disappearing like yours and not knowing what the exact reason was hehe).

I have a nephew-in-law who has bipolar and was treated with lithium as a teen, and I warned his mom when he started on that medication about the possible liver damage (because she wasn't the type to look into things like that). He was on and off meds for years and is now in his mid-20s, had lots and lots of problems throughout life.. been to jail and things.. and now he has spots on his liver - not sure if it's alcohol related or the meds or illicit drugs. It's a horrible situation for the family. They are not close, and he would only call some of them when he needed money or to scream at them while drunk or high, so if he needs a liver, I don't know if any of them would actually help him out. I'm betting he would waste the new liver too.

Oh, and I was on lithium for a short time when the Geodon stopped working. It did nothing for me. Another sign that points to pmdd (since I haven't gotten an official diagnosis yet).

In many cases it's treatable, it means being on meds forever but, yes, it's sort of like diabetes.

And my symptoms being the whole bipolar 2 thing monthly, all symptoms in the same order every month, not the hypomania anymore though...

I'd rather just have bipolar 2 without the PMDD. There is a med that's supposedly very effective, Lamictal. It's both a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant. It did help me even with the PMDD a bit for a couple of months, or maybe I just imagined it did, but no meds help in the long run. I'm still on it but I guess there's really no idea to keep taking it.

Lithium is used very little here anymore, and only for bipolar 1 I think. But yes, it is really heavy on the liver and you have to have the levels measured pretty often, I think, they have to be exactly right all the time. But I've never been on it so I don't know.

I was on Geodon for a while, which is used for bipolar and other psychotic type disorders, but my doctor never changed my diagnosis. She simply said I had "treatment-resistant depression". It did help a lot with the PMDD (which I thought then was just depression, but part of it was actually depression in between the pmdd episodes because I was depressed that we couldn't find anything to help me) so I think the mood stabilizers should be checked and tested for use with PMDD. It wasn't a COMPLETE disappearance of pmdd.. but I didn't have it quite as severe or frequent. The biggest thing was it helped make my sleep more regular. I think that is a huge component to my PMDD.

I never had hypomania though. Just always depressive symptoms. When I wasn't on meds, I had periods of normalcy and then I'd get these depressive moods on and off.. about monthly. And then I had the huge irritability and irrationality problem during my periods. I remember I used to tell new friends that sometimes I get "down" and "bummed out" because I had no idea what was really going on. For a while, I sought out people who were overly happy so they could help me be happy during my off moods. lol. I even told them, hey, you need to help me out when I'm feeling down. Weird how all this time it was pmdd. Looking back, it's so weird.

Emiliana, do you really truly believe you have bipolar AND pmdd? I really do wonder what would happen if you stopped the Lamictal. Has the pmdd gotten worse lately? Maybe the Lamictal isn't working as well.. ?? I dunno. Just wish there was something more to help you!

Well I've no idea, maybe I have PMDD and it triggers the bipolar but the bipolar is supposed to be something you inherit, you have to have the tendency in order to develop it. So I dunno, I'd actually like to go off the Lamictal as I can't feel it doing anything for me at all, and hormones sure do a lot for me. Progesterone intolerance symptoms kick in immediately when I start taking it in one form or the other. And I mean immediately. And the estradiol immediately alleviates that. Meds work for me for a while but then stop working, but with a couple of decades of experience of different hormones, those are the ones that affect me. So I kind of believe if I got my hormones in sync, whatever that is, I'd be fine and could go off the Lamictal...

(newbie here).... I too was dx as Bipolar several years ago and my current psyc was the one who figured out PMDD just a couple years ago. I have been on Prozac since then and it was working very well but the last several months, it just isn't anymore, we tried upping my dose but that has done no good. She wants me either back on a mood stabilizer or try birth control pills. I never saw any relief with mood stabilizer, most just made me gain weight and turned me into a walking zombie  

~Nicole