Poll of the Day > anyone here have aspergers, bipolar, or both?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i was diagnosed with asperger's when i was young, in 4th grade.

around the time i turned 25 a couple of years ago it seems like i've developed symptoms of bipolar. i am not sure if its just the asperger's though and the medication i'm on. i am on zoloft which is an anti-depressant, and rispiridone which is a mood stabilizer. i have been on both for many years.

i have read that zoloft can cause mania symptoms, which i get on and off. i go through bouts of severe depression where it lasts for an eternity where everything feels awful and nothing makes me happy, then i get periods of elevated moods like the past 6 days where i feel like i'm on some drug, but don't take any drugs. never have.

unlike manic/mania i don't get risky behaviors however, just feel like doing more of what i typically like, like video games.

after reading about bipolar its made me think if i'm ever actually ever truly happy or if its just these episodes i get.

the rispiridone is suppose to cancel out the manic episodes, however i take them before sleep because taking them during the day makes me feel very tired.

i was wondering for those that take these kind of medications if taking the mood stabilizers during the day is more effective in the long run, because i know what awaits next bad depression. or what kind of strategies other people have with these kinds of mood disorders.

thank you for taking the time to read, didn't mean to type this much but i guess i made things a bit more clear.
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Just saying people here can be terrible and somebody might choose to use this information to make fun of you.

I hope I am wrong though.
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I'm bipolar and there are reasons to suspect I'm on the spectrum and/or have ADHD. But like every issue I have or may have has similar symptoms so it all bleeds together.

Not having risky behavior or really high highs is part of the reason I didn't get diagnosed until I was 35 damn years old. And I know in retrospect that I was born with it. Took hospitalization and at least a year of clinical psychosis for me to figure it out.

My neurologist was telling me about how people with bipolar have emotions that last a very long time while other people have emotional responses that last like 30 seconds. That's still such a weird concept to me.

I don't have a lot of experience with medication for it. So far lithium is doing such a good job for me. For a little while I got a bit of that "zombie" feeling and emotional numbness. But once I adjusted it's been keeping me level but still able to feel.

I used to be in excruciating emotional pain more often than not, and now I don't hurt all the time. Is nice.
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I also literally just saw that 25 is considered a typical age to develop bipolar.
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Yes, sort of. I wasn't diagnosed until well after I graduated high school due to living in the boonies.

I'm on Celexa, it helps with tremors and panic attacks (although I don't have anxiety or anxiety related issues, but I do get panic attacks 'cuz something in my stomach)

...

whether or not mood stabilizers are more effective in the morning or at night depends on your metabolism and the halflife of the medication. For Celexa I take it at night since the tiredness' sideeffect has a very short duration of a few hours, but the medication lasts a long time.

But this is on a day to day dealie - your medication schedule can never be better or worse than the lowest common multiple of the halflives of all medications you're on... ... ... or whatever (math not to scale)
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I have never been formally diagnosed, but I've had multiple people accuse me of being bipolar. I don't know if that's true, since my life simply has a lot of ups and downs and I tend to ride the waves pretty hard.

Definitely not on the spectrum.

I think I have some schizoid tendencies that may or may not be drug induced. I often feel it's uncanny how often media seems to comment on something I've just said or thought. I want to assign it to some cosmic conscious awareness, but I realize it's likely me being hypersensitive to confirmation bias and my poor hearing processing in my brain incorrectly.

I think Im mildly on the autistic spectrum but Ive never been diagnosed so I cant say for sure
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I have borderline autism and apparently a form of bipolar. Just found out about the bipolar earlier this year.
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I don't think I have either. But I've also never been checked, AFAIK... I pretty sure I do know what I have, though...
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Moonjay posted...

My neurologist was telling me about how people with bipolar have emotions that last a very long time while other people have emotional responses that last like 30 seconds. That's still such a weird concept to me.

I'm bipolar and I've never been told this but I definitely relate to this statement.

My mom thought I had Asperger's when I was a kid (special ed teacher).

Throughout my childhood they were never sure how to diagnose me. They generally settled with ADD and minor OCD, though some suggested PDD (spectrum, but more mild than Asbergers).

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I got a diagnosis for Aspergers a couple of years ago after suffering from depression for the majority of my life.

I'm simply horrible at making friends and maintaining friendships and being social in general.

For some reason my social skills have gotten even worse and now I barely speak with other people such as at work.
And to make matters worse, my memory and quickthinking skills has become shit.

I used to have a great memory and could remember most things fairly quickly.
But now I struggle everyday to remember certain things such as names of people and what things are called.

Example; When I chat with a friend about movies and I tend to struggle with actors names. Even those really big names that I should know.
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i like the north and south pole
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I have both...

Adolescent-onset rapid-cycling bipolar NOS (type not otherwise specified), if specificity matters; I knew by the time I was 14 that my mood swings were far worse than those of most other people I knew of my age, but I wasn't diagnosed properly until I had a nervous breakdown when I was 19.

As for Asperger's, though it's begun to be called simply a variant of "autism spectrum disorder" since Asperger was a Nazi and many of us would rather not, I've been told by numerous professionals that I clearly do have it, but somehow it's never ended up on my formal records. If you're adult and not male and/or non-verbal, getting a formal diagnosis on paper is a nightmare. Unfortunately, it would be rather helpful to have it written down. As things stand, the formal (MH) list is bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD. All of which are common comorbidities... Oddly enough, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome seems to be, too, or at least I know an inordinate number of people with EDS who are also autistic to some degree. It would be interesting to see what a study would show.
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LeetCheet posted...

I got a diagnosis for Aspergers a couple of years ago after suffering from depression for the majority of my life.

I'm simply horrible at making friends and maintaining friendships and being social in general.

For some reason my social skills have gotten even worse and now I barely speak with other people such as at work.
And to make matters worse, my memory and quickthinking skills has become shit.

I used to have a great memory and could remember most things fairly quickly.
But now I struggle everyday to remember certain things such as names of people and what things are called.

Example; When I chat with a friend about movies and I tend to struggle with actors names. Even those really big names that I should know.

Ugh so much sympathy. I had memory problems that I thought were severe when I was just depressed, but multiple sclerosis taught me real problems. Good old "brain fog" makes me feel like an absolute idiot sometimes.
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Moonjay posted...

LeetCheet posted...

I got a diagnosis for Aspergers a couple of years ago after suffering from depression for the majority of my life.

I'm simply horrible at making friends and maintaining friendships and being social in general.

For some reason my social skills have gotten even worse and now I barely speak with other people such as at work.
And to make matters worse, my memory and quickthinking skills has become shit.

I used to have a great memory and could remember most things fairly quickly.
But now I struggle everyday to remember certain things such as names of people and what things are called.

Example; When I chat with a friend about movies and I tend to struggle with actors names. Even those really big names that I should know.

Ugh so much sympathy. I had memory problems that I thought were severe when I was just depressed, but multiple sclerosis taught me real problems. Good old "brain fog" makes me feel like an absolute idiot sometimes.

Oh yeah. Brain fog is the worst, with the possible exception of chronic pain. (I have secondary fibromyalgia among my other issues.)
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