Friday freakout: Are You F'ing Kidding Me?

I summoned up the courage to see the nurse practitioner at the gynecologist.

I described my symptoms: hormonal rages, mood swings, etc.

Her next words were, "So I see you're bipolar."

Sigh. You know, I've never really bought into this bi-polar diagnosis.

The first person to tag me with it was my neurologist, based on my risky roller-coaster behavior. Then I heard it from the psychiatrist, and he should know, right? But then he backed off.

And then when I saw it again on the general physician's chart, I noticed it said bi-polar N.O.S., or "Not Otherwise Specified," which evidently means, "Probably bi-polar but she doesn't fit the diagnostic requirements ... yet." That was twenty years ago. Granted, if the requirements are depression and hypomania, I did have that one time I felt like I could jog home from the mall. Damnit. One particularly happy night and I'm bi-polar for life.

It can also mean "It looks like you have bipolar disorder but your doctor thinks your symptoms might be caused by drugs, alcohol or a general medical condition (see Ruling Out Other Physical Conditions)", where MS is one of the conditions.

"N.O.S.?" I said hopefully to the nurse practitioner.

"Oh, I know all about the different types," she said sympathetically. Then she recommended counseling, which I am going to take full advantage of, as soon as I can pick up the phone to call someone without crying.

I was encouraged when she ran her diagnosis past the gynecologist, who recommended I get a blood test to be sure I'm post-menopausal, or if my hormones could still be fluctuating.

And the test came back and my follicle-stimulating hormones are at 80 in a range of 16 - 113, solidly menopausal. So, I need to schedule a visit to see the psychiatrist again, go back on the Celexa (or perhaps its less fattening cousin, Lexapro), and as an added bonus I am going to indulge in counseling. I'm thinking of it as a luxury. I need to be counseled in how to deal with injustice. Because seriously, my husband can't find the snow peas and he explodes, but no one tags him as bi-polar. So not fair.

Comments

[Mrs. Hall]

there's like 3 main bipolar diagnoses

Bipolar I
Bipolar II
Cyclothymia

My guess is you are more #3 given the above.

Good luck with the counseling. :)

[theQueen]

Mrs Hall - bring on the mania, then. Not enough mania over here. Right now I've decided to skip the psychiatrist and go to the counselor and see what they say. It seems that since Gary's the only one who brings on the mood swings maybe I can work through that.

[~~Silk]

" since Gary's the only one who brings on the mood swings" I question the bipolar diagnosis, of any level. Bipolar will affect all of your relationships. Go to the counselor, and drag Gary along! This all started when he retired, right?

[Thequeen]

~~silk - actually, it all started at the nieces wedding.
All - certainly someone agrees that I am indeed bipolar ....it is a possibility.