Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that seems to have become much more commonly diagnosed in recent years. It is also a disorder that can go undiagnosed because of the nature of the symptoms.
There are several different kinds of bipolar disorder but what defines bipolar is the extremes in moods from high highs (mania) to low lows (depression).
The truth is that mania feels good. The person is on top of the world and the behaviors that go along with this feeling of euphoria often cause reckless behavior. People do not usually seek medical help when they are feeling manic.
The other side of bipolar is the lows. The depressive symptoms can make a person feel suicidal and this is what often brings them to seek medical help. The psychiatrist only sees the person in a severely depressed mood and treats them with an anti-depressant. This will help them at first to cope with the depression symptoms, but as time goes by, the anti-depressant will actually make their manic episodes worsen. The depression will not be "fixed" either. A doctor who doesn't recognize that there are mood swings will increase the dosage of anti-depressant and the person will often continue the cycle of mood swings.
Diagnosing bipolar is difficult. It involves many visits to the psychiatrist and unfortunately, if those visits do not coincide with your mood swings and you do not verbalize these feelings, a doctor can easily miss that you have a form of bipolar.
This is most evident in children and teenagers. A psychiatrist who allows the parent to "speak" for the child is trusting that the parent's observations are correct and not biased or overly exaggerrated.
As a parent of a now-teenager, I have sat in psychiatrists' offices for years listening to my daughter either not verbalize her symptoms or seemingly forgetting how severe her moods often can be.
Over the years she has been diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, anxiety, depression, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, and now mild Bipolar II.
As a parent who has 20 years experience with psychiatrists, I am frustrated.
I have been paid to research, cite sources and write about mental illness and treatments. I do not have a degree in any medical field (aside from a certification in massage therapy) but I feel that I have enough knowledge to guide my daughter's treatment.
What disturbs me greatly is that my research and personal experience has shown me that often symptoms can be affected by a person's lifestyle. In my daughter's case, I know that she needs a structured schedule to stick to. If allowed to just do as she wants, during depressive episodes she will withdraw and literally spend most of her time sleeping or laying around.
Her diet is also an issue. Always a picky eater, her bloodwork shows that she has a Vitamin D deficiency. People with a deficiency can suffer from depression symptoms. Like many teens, her diet is deficient in many areas. There is a direct connection to her mental health.
Psychiatrists often poo-poo the idea that a vitamin deficiency can affect your mental well-being. Many instead will increase your medication instead of referring you to a nutritionist.
I call this the zombie affect. It is also putting a band-aid on a wound that needs stitches.
To sum it all up, bipolar disorder is not always easy to see and even when it is, the journey can be one full of frustration.
Patients need to educate themselves in order to ensure that they receive the correct diagnosis and treatment that is best for them.
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