46yr M - End of 2021 I got officially diagnosed with ADHD (drop the H) and the previous year with depression, my GP gave me Adderall and XL300 (anti deprs') , and nothing improved just got worse, couple of weeks ago I finally got an appointment with psychiatrist (resident) and the supervising doctor decided that I'm Bipolar2 and not ADD.
To be honest, after reading on BP2 I realized that I do suffer from it since I'm 11 or 12yr. But at the same time I have every possible symptom of ADD which they insist I don't have.
Did any of you encountered such diagnosis and how you dealt with it?
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TipTopADHD
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Hi. I was diagnosed with ADHD at age 18 & a cyclical mood disorder, cyclothymia, which is less severe than bipolar 2 (no true manic episodes & only hypomania). There’s a great graphical comparison posted on Wikipedia.
As I got older, I wondered if I should challenge the diagnosis & if it would be better explained by ADHD + depression (instead of a cyclical mood disorder.)
Now I think the initial diagnosis of a cyclical mood disorder + ADHD is the best to describe my symptoms,
That said, I think that the actual diagnosis isn’t all that important. I just treat the ADHD w/ medication, Vyv…, (and of course systems/ lifestyle supports) & I take an anti anxiety med to off set any anxiety caused by 2nd effects from the ADHD meds. Hope this info is helpful.
I feel like my symptoms are pretty well managed & I live a very full life. For me its key to SLEEP enough, exercise/ move every day to burn off excess energy, have lots of systems/ routines + have a backup therapist if ever needed (and lots of good family members/ friends in my support network to talk to). I also have to really manage stress & try to minimize it.
I still convinced that there's something off in the diagnosis, but what can one expect when doctors don't really want to cure/heal anyone as most of them (99%) care only about billing and insurance.
I'm actually in a sort of similar position, I wrote a long post about it on the r/adhd reddit, maybe I'll copy it here because I got no responses there. Bipolar and ADHD have a ton of symptoms in common and only an experienced medical professional is qualified to tell you what you have (and they can get it wrong of course). I think the main thing with ADHD is that, even though people are sometimes not diagnosed with ADHD until adulthood, it's a developmental disorder, so the symptoms are there from a very young age. My ADHD symptoms were getting me in trouble in school and with friends and family since I was about 6! Bipolar on the other hand, usually (but not always) shows up later. In addition, both these are hereditary, so if you have ADHD, you probably have relatives with ADHD, and if you have bipolar you probably have relatives with bipolar (but not always). (I am not a doctor, this is just from my own research.)
Bipolar and ADHD are common co-morbidities. "Recent research [...] suggests that about 1 in 13 patients with ADHD has comorbid BD, and up to 1 in 6 patients with BD has comorbid ADHD." So you can def have both.
The thing my doctor is doing is trying to treat the ADHD and depression and if that works and I don't have manic or depressive episodes, then okay, I'm not bipolar. If I do have an episode and it responds to treatment with a mood stabilizer, then okay, I am bipolar. Seems like a decent approach to me. It sounds like your doctor may be going the other way around since you've already tried the mainline ADHD treatment of Adderall?
ETA: and in addition, bipolar has far more of a social stigma than ADHD. I used to be afraid of getting a diagnosis of bipolar because I thought that would mean I'd really gone round the bend. I had friends warn me that a diagnosis of bipolar would be bad for me. But I've done a lot of research and I'm a lot less afraid of it than I used to be - there are a lot of effective treatments out there.
There's one difference b/t you and I in the context of your message. Instead of Bipolar-2 disorder, I have Bipolar-1 disorder. We're also close in age, I'm 43, and the same sex. I hope this helps in some way, I'm going to tell you about the path I took, which helped stabilize me in ways I didn't think possible -- with fewer side effects too.
In 2017, my primary care physician asked if I'd see a board qualified psychologist to have a Neuropsychological Assessment test. I thought about it, but was hesitant, because I knew how difficult 6 different, one hour sessions a psychologist, asking some of the most personal questions about my life, was going to be exhausting and emotionally difficult -- And it was.
About 6-weeks after the Assessment, I met with the psychologist to have "Feedback". He handed me a 27page packet, that included test results from a day where I spent 8-hours, doing all types of different puzzles. As well as his impressions from the 4 hours he spent asking me questions.
I'm telling you all this, to hopefully lead you towards a better path, where a qualified Neuropsychologist can test you. Two mental disorders, among others, found in my feedback were ADHD/Combined Presentation, and Bipolar-1 disorder. I believe, a Psychologist's diagnoses, offers a better idea of your illness, and can certainly narrow down possible comorbidity's.
It's nice to see a psychiatrist change their opinions about your mental state. I promise you, that when it happens, you'll realize how little they truly understood how to treat you. However, after reading more about you, they'll get it. And it's on them, if they chose not to follow the treatment plan, written by your Neuropsychologist.
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