Bipolar and Ovulation?

Post Reply New Topic

Hi Everyone. Ok, so I'm new to this side of the forums, but here goes:

I've been diagnosed with panic disorder...and I've been on meds...and i don't have any more panic attacks however, as we all know, most things come in lovely packages: so I also have bouts of OCD and I've been monitoring my moods, and been thinking....maybe I'm bipolar?! Could it be??

I've taken a few quizzes online but never been diagnosed as such....however....I'm on medication. Taken off of it, maybe it would be clearer what I really have??

Every two weeks I have serious mood changes.....especially when my period comes around, but also two weeks after....everything goes to crap too....I did some research on ovulation, and found out that it can make women have mood swings, but Idk...so which is it?

Even with the meds right now,
- I wake up some days and don't feel like doing anything- especially go to work - call in sick a lot
- sometimes feel emotionally empty....like i feel nothing....for anyone....
- love being alone in the dark and just thinking or being alone in general
- I suck at being consistent with anything....washing my face/brushing teeth/following a diet/etc....
- Every few weeks, I'll be super depressed and other times, especially when i have coffee, I'll be really hyper and funny and talkative and sweet and then go back to myself later....after the coffee effect resides
- I've gone on spending sprees b/c im depressed a lot
- cry a LOT....sometimes for no reason or just b/c im super stressed sometimes

It could be bipolar, but it could be just "normal" emotional disregulation issues and depression in addition, that's typical for many autistic people.
Autistics in general tend to have difficulties regulating their emotions.

To bipolar and autism:
It's not quite clear now. Some scientists say it's underdiagnosed, some say it's overdiagnosed, because "emotion disregulation" is common in autism and should be distinct from bipolar (or borderline PD).

I've recently been paying close attention to my mood/energy cycles as they relate to my fertility cycle, and they're remarkably consistent. Once I learned how to honor them appropriately and not push past my limits, they became a lot easier to work with.

For example, during the follicular phase of my cycle (starting with day 1 of menstruation, going to ovulation, my mood is up, my energy is up, and I feel a lot more mentally focused, almost like my energy is being pushed into a funnel until it comes to a laser-precise focus on whatever my attention is turned toward. Within a day or two after ovulation, I feel like my energy is more quiet, diffuse and inward-focused if that makes sense? If I press myself to be too energetic or outwardly-focused, and don't honor my needs, then I become moody, irritable, depressed, or even sometimes explosive.

Does that match at all what you experience? Hormones really can play a huge role in our emotional lives. Try watching your mood cycles closely to see if you can try just riding them wherever they take you so you won't have to battle them.

Don't self diagnose. Or come off your meds. If you are bipolar, coming off your meds will make it worse. What are you, by the way? Because some medications will trigger a manic/hypomanic episode of bipolar.

It could be, but mania is more than feeling happy. And the spending sprees usually happen when the person with bipolar is manic, not depressed.

It seems more like unipolar depression with the hormonal mood swings. Panic attacks can make your thoughts race as bipolar can. But, keep an eye on it. If you think it's bipolar, record your mood, how many hours you slepy in yhe night, did you take your meds or not...

Interesting.

Just out of curiousity, do the moodswings or emotional disregulation in AS last weeks, months? I've heard about people with AS being diagnosed as Bipolar I's (even young children) and meltdowns being mistaken for mania, but the one thing that has always got me is that looking at the stories of people that were misdiagnosed, there mood swings happened really quickly. I know about the Pediactric Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis, that one bugs me a lot. Some of those kids probably do have some form of Autism, or ADHD, or ODD.

I've heard about AS being misdiagnosed as Schizophrenia a lot of the time too.

No, by emotion disregulation problems the moodswings are short and usually have a specific reason. It's more the inability to process emotions correctly and so situations can be easily overwhelming. But the problem is, psychiatrists very often "overdiagnose" and are also not that experienced in autism and so very often diagnose something in addition to explain symptoms like those.

To Bipolar and children:
Bipolar in children exists, but the problem is that the minority(!) of children diagnosed with "Bipolar" will develope Bipolar when they grow up, just a small perentage of those children really develope it.

My mood issues have a strong correlation to the luteal phrase of the biological cycle. I think they are triggered by a rise in progestogens, because I have a lower sex / aggression drive at this time and progestogenic compounds generally antagonize androgens.

yes this is something i've noticed too and have experienced. i showed my first signs of my Bipolar I disorder in childhood at around 10 years old. i'm 17 now so this obviously wasn't too long ago. however, despite the fact that i had severe depression and then a 2-year swing between hypomania and delusional mania... i didn't receive the diagnosis until a terrible mixed episode at age 16, last summer.

they knew my family history too, very strong presentation of Bipolar I throughout my father's side. even when i was 16 and an inpatient in the psychiatric hospital the psychiatrists both expressed to me that they were being very cautious about the "bipolar" label.

i wish other doctors were this way too. even though i wish my hypomania/mania/mixed episodes were treated properly as soon as they were noticed (the resources were there) i still really don't like seeing all these kids diagnosed with this when really it's a disorder that seems to present the way it is written in medical literature in young adulthood or older...

I know it does, I just find it hard to believe that it only exists in America. And it's never been properly researched. The diagnostic criteria came from a survey sent to parents who thought there children had bipolar, and involves things such as "Eats more Carbohydrates" or the latest one I've heard about "an explanation as to why your bipolar child will scream at mum but not at anyone else." I also don't believe you are born bipolar, as a lot of these parents claim. Mental Illness is a disorder that is triggered. You may have a higher chance of the disorder being "triggered", but you're never born with it. And that pretty much every child with PBD suffers from Ultradian Cycling...sorry, but for a manic episode to be a manic episode it has to last seven days.

So I'm skeptical whenever I hear the term "Pediatric Bipolar Disorder", which is completley different from Bipolar disorder. But I've heard about the minority who do have it. It's not really enough to prove anything. I think they've calling it Disruptive Temper Deregulation Disorder in the new DSM5, stating that heightened irritability may well be a mood disorder, but it is NOT bipolar.

Bipolar started for me when I was 17, depressive mood swing first. I was referring to children under the age of five getting a bipolar diagnosis, based on a criteria that isn't in the DSM. I don't have bipolar I, but bipolar II is horrible enough as it is, so stay strong, however hard it gets.