Is this bi-polar or ADHD?

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Okay, I notice that I get periods, perhaps every month or so where I become totally hyper and manic, I would say, wanting suddenly to do everything at once, totally indecisive, periods of elation that leave my heart racing and me feeling as if I can fly...almost like excitement, and I just cannot focus on one thing at once. For example, right now, I am on wp, but I want to watch a DVD but I keep swinging between the two things. And the result of this sort of phase is that I am utterly exhausted.

When not in this sort of phase, I am either very depressed, indecisive and slow, or totally indifferent.

I am so tired of not knowing what causes this issue in me. I have such a poor attention span, and then this thing with the elation where suddenly my mind is swinging all over the place, from one thing to another...

Another thing right now, while in this sort of cannot keep mind focussed phase is that any noise seems to hurt me... I am more sensitive to sound and more irritable and on edge... like I am tightly wound.

I have the same thing only I feel very depressed when I get like that, thus desperate for stimulation. It makes me very very physically tired, but it's worth it... anything to save my soul! I have a very poor attention span too; maybe we both have ADD.

Sheesh! I'm not sure. However, I can only guess on bipolar disorder. My brothers have ADHD and they are always hyper when they don't take their Adderall, which calms them down. However, as I have learned with my mom and with folks here on WP, disorders can have different effects on people.

I just don't know as my attention span the rest of the time is very poor... I cannot read for long and tend to swing tasks and be unsettled in general.
I suppose it is possible I have both, but that would just be too unjust.

I probably have ADHD and bipolar, lol. My need for instant gratification of my stimulation needs... or I'll fall into a black hole... and I'm hyper one minute and collapsed on my bed the next... but there's no manic feelings, only normal contentness-for-now and depression... often extreme. Not as bad as before I started taking Celexa... not NEARLY as bad... but bad ENOUGH.


Oh man, am I hijacking other people's threads now? LOL!

I get severe, severe drops in mood and those last perhaps days, then just what I call my normal state of being, then perhaps another drop in mood, then an elation spell, then back to my normal state of being. It is very disruptive to be honest, and the attention/focus issue is maddening as I want to sit down and read a book or write my own book but seem unable to.

Oh, hijack away...I'll return the favour sometime

I also get that... my "manic" also isn't high at all... just because the two moods are bad doesn't mean that one isn't WAAAAY better than the other... so I think it's quite possible it's bipolar. to be bipolar your higher "pole" doesn't necessarily have to be happy, just way better than the other one... you could be a bipolar person in a depressed state...

I get exactly like that too, but sometimes the downs are really bad.

Officially, I'm ADD, so it could be that.

However, at the psychoanalysis a few years ago, I also said "Yes, I get depressed, but it seems to be cause by food." We now know it isn't just food, thought it can make it more likely to set it off. Anyways, my pont is they didn't really look at depression.

My friend, and a friend's mom, have diagnosed bipolar.

My friend says she gets really depressed sometimes, and other times she feels like she's top of the world.

A friends mom tend to become very very antisocial when she;s on a down swing. Paranoia goes through the roof.

On a manic stage, the happy one, she goes out and buys a lot. In one causes and aurora (Very expensive car) and a fur coat.

Bi polar fits the issues I seem to have. But I am not sure I would wish to be on medication for it.

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition defined as recurrent episodes of significant disturbance in mood. These disturbances can occur on a spectrum that ranges from debilitating depression to unbridled mania. Individuals suffering from bipolar disorder typically experience fluid states of mania, hypomania or what is referred to as a mixed state in conjunction with depressive episodes. These clinical states typically alternate with a normal range of mood. The disorder has been subdivided into Bipolar I, Bipolar II and cyclothymia, with both Bipolar I and Bipolar II potentially presenting with rapid cycling.

Bipolar disorder is commonly categorized as either Bipolar Type I, where an individual experiences full-blown mania, or Bipolar Type II, in which the hypomanic "highs" do not go to the extremes of mania. The latter is much more difficult to diagnose, since the hypomanic episodes may simply appear as a period of successful high productivity and is reported less frequently than a distressing depression. Psychosis can occur, particularly in manic periods. There are also 'rapid cycling' subtypes. Because there is so much variation in the severity and nature of mood-related problems, the concept of a bipolar spectrum is often employed, which includes cyclothymia. There is no consensus as to how many 'types' of bipolar disorder exist.[10] Many people with bipolar disorder experience severe anxiety and are very irritable (to the point of rage) when in a manic state, while others are euphoric and grandiose.

Sounds BiPolar to me.

Not ADHD. It sounds a lot like mania.

Yes, it feels like it too at times, but it only seems to last for maybe a day or two at a time.
But what is really annoying me is my levels of concentration. I just cannot focus. I cannot even read a page of a book, or writing under the paintings in the local art gallery. My mind just will not focus and I find I want to move onto somewhere else or something else. It is proving to be a barrier to my learning more. I wonder if there is anything that could help this other than medications.

darnit

ooops... I never learn