Misdiagnosed Bipolar Disorder as BPD

[Tay100]

@hunginc i'm sorry to hear it took so long- that must of been frustrating for you! How are things now? Are you able to manage things productively?

[hunginc]

@Tay100 Things have been great! Yes, I'm able to manage daily life quite well thanks to medication and self-care practices

[Tay100]

@hunginc that's great to hear, glad things are sailing smoothly and that you are in a better place now

[Janine-RO]

Hey @hunginc  it's awesome to hear that life is treating you well these days, what self care practices do you find work for you? 

[hunginc]

@Janine-RO Journaling, exercise, meditation and reading

[WheresMySquishy]

I'm so glad you're feeling better nowadays @hunginc! I find those things helpful too.

How are you doing @c0penhagen?

[c0penhagen]

@hunginc @WheresMySquishy @peppermintpeony  Hey there! hope you are all doing well! 

I'm so glad to see that I am not alone in this situation! Since I last wrote here, I have since seen a psychiatrist as per request of my GP who wanted to get a confirmation of diagnosis. I have now been formally diagnosed with Bipolar II and CPTSD. I had no idea what CPTSD was until I heard it (and it is extremely accurate for my situation, so I am glad that this doctor managed to ask the right questions and understood my situation, instead of simply labelling it as "BPD" because they're unsure, like some others did) and I am finally on the right medications to manage bipolar. I haven't felt this close to "normal" in years and it is such a relief. It's like I have finally found the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now that I am finally on the right medications (like @hunginc I was also on an SSRI that induced hypomanic episodes. Of course I had no idea that something was wrong until I experienced another depressive episode, and was absolutely overwhelmed by the consequences of my actions while hypomanic. Now I'm just trying to get my life together bit by bit, building up my savings again and practicing self-care now that I am calm enough to do so. 

It honestly upsets me to hear that there are other people who have been misdiagnosed like this. At the end of the day, only WE know how we are truly feeling. Psychologists/psychiatrists and GPs will only base their diagnosis off what we tell them, and often they can misinterpret things if they don't make the effort to get the entire context of your issues. That was the case with me, and although I am furious at the amount of time and money I wasted on the wrong treatments I am glad that I have finally been diagnosed correctly. There is hope for all of us, we just need to find the right doctors, the right combination of medications and we can get through this.  

[Janine-RO]

Hey @c0penhagen , thanks so much for updating us on how you're doing - it's so good to hear that things have improved a lot for you now that you have a correct diagnosis and are on the right medications. It must have been such a frustrating process being misdiagnosed like that, but I think the hope and resilience that shines through in your post is awesome - I especially loved this-

"There is hope for all of us, we just need to find the right doctors, the right combination of medications and we can get through this.  "

I think that reading that will help a lot of people.

[WheresMySquishy]

Hi again @c0penhagen! I'm so glad that you were able to get a diagnosis that provides the best explanation for you. I'm really happy for you that your psychiatrist understood you and knew which questions to ask and that you're now on medications that help manage your symptoms. Like you, I also had to see a psychiatrist to receive the correct diagnosis because my psychologist didn't know what I had. It can be so helpful to receive an opinion from a specialist who knows what they are doing.
I would be angry if I were in your shoes too. I've often walked out of doctors' offices or telehealth appointments thinking, 'Well that was a total waste of time'. All too often doctors and other professionals can latch onto one thing and treat it as the root cause of the problem rather than taking the time to listen, get a full history and doing thorough investigations. It frustrates me that we keep having to look for the right professional rather than receiving the correct diagnosis and treatment from the get go. It's happened with my family and I way too many times so it must be quite common.