Anyone asperger's and bipolar? I am new also.

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Hello everyone

I have aspergers although I never was told I had it until adulthood. My mom took me to a university psychology study everyday for about a week, where they diagnosed me with aspergers. My mom didn't want to "freak me out" or hurt my feelings (I do get my feelings hurt easily over things), so she was just trying to protect me.

I was telling her about how I suspected that I had it because I was having problems in school and with people. Then she told me about the asperger's thing.

I am going back to the same student psychology clinic in a few weeks because I am rather confused on what all I have. I have been perscribed adderall for add for example because I am very slow at doing my work and I can't focus for sh&#. I miss turns to familiar places when I drive often. And everyday in class, when everyone else had ten drawings done, I have three or four done.

I have had bipolar symptoms, pretty strong ones, and I was never flat out diagnosed, just been told "you might have it" by psychologist.


I am not sure if I have ADD at all, or if its just aspergers. Or bipolar.

I believe I am bipolar just because there have been time in my life where I cycled through mania/hypomania. And during these times, I would be hyperfocused in subjects such as Japanese. I learned katakana/hiragana (2 of 3 japanese alphabets) in just TWO DAYS along with many kanji and grammar structure that I still remember perfectly.

Also, during these manic times, I would be able to socially interact more confidently. I won't go as far to say that I was still socially normal or acceptable, my rants were far longer. But I could talk to strangers easily and engage in risky behavior (message me privately if you'd like to know, I don't want to scare off everyone lol). I would just feel amazing like I was high on drugs. The sky was huge and blue and all the colors of the world had a over saturated look, almost like things were glowing! And i would get this tingling feeling all over me.

Bad part about mania is I could suddenly act violently towards whatever current boyfriend I would have. If they were in a pissy mood, I would just blow the f&#k up and go into this blurs as if I were drunk. I'd say and do things that I really didn't remember (like a drunk memory). And it made me feel horrible to have my boyfriend retell the story of how I acted.


I can explain further about mania if you need me to. If thats really what it was, that is.

Once it was over, I would crash into a depression. I would sleep or lay in bed for like a week. My whole boy would physically hurt and I would cry about everything.


But I haven't been having these episodes lately because I live with my parents and its a little less stressful. I have little mini episodes every once in a while, but its pretty well under control thanks to my change in environment.

I guess I just need ya'll to help me understand what its like to be:
aspergers (and nothing else)
aspergers and add
aspergers and bipolar

Also, I am totally new to knowing I have aspergers. For example, I watch the same DVD over and over every day and I also listen to the same song over and over. Currently my repeats are the television animated series "Home Movies" and the film "Blade Runner".

I've been listening to the same song over and over lately too. Partly to me it's because it makes my hypomania feel even more intense. So I do have bipolar and Asperger's and even ADHD.

I've had the privileged to monitor people with just bipolar, just ADHD and just Asperger's and what sticks out for people with ADHD is the lack of focus or even motivation to get started because of feeling overwhelmed. My sister with bipolar doesn't seem to struggle with motivation in a sense of not thinking she can do it but just not wanting to do it. People who really want to work on their ADHD symptoms will rarely have a day when they won't do something because they didn't want to. They always feel like it's just too much effort and they might just fail anyway.

My biggest problem with ADHD is focusing and memory problems. Even when I focus on things I love (my special interests) I struggle with focus and even remembering as much as I want to.

It pretty much sounds like you have bipolar. I keep thinking my type of bipolar isn't as serious as others though I can get to a point where I lose control, recklessly drink and take drugs and engage in risky behaviour. To me it doesn't seem as severe as other people though. I've done a lot of self-therapy to overcome some issues and as long as I stay away from stimulant drugs I won't completely lose control of myself. Keep me away from coffee too. One drink and I've lost control. I'll become seriously paranoid.

Question: did you begin to suspect your boyfriend was cheating on you or was a bit of a 'dirty' person? I ask this because I heard it's common for women with bipolar to suspect this and even my sister and I have done the exact same thing. It makes me think I'm always going to go down the same path when I date. I can even feel that way towards friends.

If you do have bipolar Adderall alone will throw you into mania. I can't take Ritalin alone. I want to have the prolonged focus and emotional regulation as well as memory increase it gives me so badly right now.

Asperger's to me is about always struggling to understand people and social conventions. Mania makes me more social too but it doesn't give me a better grasp of social rules. I remember when I tried to learn better social skills but my depression and mania just got in the way. I've got a lot of repetitive behaviour too that I attribute to autism. I eat the same meals everyday, wear clothes all in the same style and have emotional attachments to certain clothes, which gets worse when I'm manic. I have to wear certain clothes together sometimes, even underwear and socks have to be right. I have a severe fear of change too. I have panic attacks or just get verbally resistant to people. I'm sure there's a personality disorder in there making it even worse too.

From what I've gleaned from people who are just AS there aren't really focusing issues, just they won't focus on what isn't interesting to them. Like I said people with ADHD can have difficulty even focusing on their interests. Sometimes they can get a bit of focus but they will exhaust themselves easily because once they get focus they can't stop and they put way too much energy in at once and just drain it all away. That's what it feels like to me at least.

Bipolar is a period of time of having highs and lows completely uncharacteristic to your own personality. It cycles from one extreme into another. There may be a trigger but it's usually when one episode is changing into another. I can tell when my mania becomes darker and eventually depression will hit, but a trigger may just make it happen at once. Things people say to me could be triggers. One day I could wake up and be manic (euphoric kind) and it's always after I go through a terrible patch. Sometimes it's just from a lack of sleep. There are triggers but don't have to be.
When I'm manic (the euphoric type) I'm over confident, able to cope better with change, far more social and need to go out and do something. I could just as easily commit myself to a project, usually something long term. I taught myself the bass, simple physics, advanced math, wrote three Doctor Who fan fictions and the first draft of a novel. My latest one is turning my novel into a screenplay. I'm a band photographer too and will plan to go to about 5 shows over a week and usually I can only do one show a week.
Despite having impulse issues I think I'm able to stay in control of myself but mania changes all that. I lose complete control and then when depression hits all self-confidence is gone. It's really the only time I've felt so down on myself that I think of suicide. My thinking, speech, even movements are slowed. I lose all motivation. My senses are even dulled as as I normally have sensitive senses and mania makes them even worse this is a part of depression that isn't so bad.

I have very brief normal moods and I seem pretty dull in comparison to mania but stable enough to not be deeply depressed. I'm able to organize and stick to a productive routine. My social skills are just as bad as they always were. I can't say much to people. I don't make eye contact. Unlike my manic periods I don't even want to be around people for long. I'm overwhelmed and inattentive. Motivation takes some effort as I'm still inattentive and distracted but less hyperactive because I think my hyperactivity is really hypomania. My memory isn't as good but not as bad as when I'm depressed. So, I still have symptoms of autism and ADHD but none of bipolar.

I hope that helped. I'm just writing as the thoughts come so I had no idea how this would turn out.

I have some symptoms of bipolar as well, but I'm not diagnosed. I sometimes go into hypomania because of huge anxiety attacks or hormonal issues. After the hypomania I always crash into a horrible depression for two or three days. The depression have after hypomania is the worst feeling on the planet. It's like the emotional equivalent of the pain you have right after an injury. I have situational depression most of the time, but it is nothing compared to the depression after hypomania.

Thanks to both of you for your responses

Pensive THANK YOU.

And to answer your question, I have accused other men of cheating simply because there were cheating or because they just werent that into me in the beginning. My current boyfriend is actually pretty great. I can't remember if I mentioned it, but I am disabled do to a chronic disease called interstitial cystitis. And this guy moved in with my parents so that he could do all my chores and cook all my meals AND deal with my bipolar aspie crap. So I have never accused him of everything. If you tend to get very paranoid though, I guess I could see why you'd ask partners if they cheated.

Everything you wrote sounds exactly how I explain my bipolar/aspie to people. My only difference is my adderall never triggered a mania. In fact I would get sick of taking it and quit taking it. So I guess I just never took the stuff while manic or hypomanic anyway.

"typing as thoughts come out" or what ever you said? I never think when I type. Am I supposed to? lol

Ok how do I know I am ADD or not? Because art is my number one interest and dream, yet in class everyday, I can't seem to stay focused. The teacher will give us an hour for ten drawings. I will only get three or four, and I look around the room and everyones got ten. MY drawings aren't more or less detailed than everyone elses. The same amount of work is being put into it, but I can't seem to focus entirely to get my work done.

I always leave my painting homework til last minute or I don't do it at all and then I am in trouble.

How do I know if I don't have it at all? Couldn't focus be from anxiety or something? Idk

Again thanks for your reponse. It really does help.

I'm bipolar and autistic as well. As for the ADHD – I think my focus problems are explained by autism. I'm not sure if you can be autistic without having ADHD symptoms?

Honestly, it doesn't matter all that much to me if I am ADD or not, because I don't take medication for stuff like that. I would rather work through it without medication. I do worse one medication for bipolar for example. I just want to be myself. I have had a therapist tell me that I don't have to do medication if I don't want to.

But I would like have a bipolar diagnoses so I can go to therapy for that. I would like to learn to control my emotion better.

Thanks ya'll for your input. I guess I just didn't know if you could have both bipolar and aspergers or if one thing caused all my symptoms.

I had run across your Thread via a google search in order to search for help in order to focus my systems into something more positive. had to just create an account and post, and I am looking to be on here and join the community.

I, myself, was told I may have Aspergers at age 17 when I was in high school after they had done tests and did a lot of studies on me during that time. I was mis-diagnosed with ADHD when I was in 2nd grade, I had a psych evaluation done when I was twelve, and had read the report a few weeks ago, I was said to have social levels lower than that of a 5 year old. Every one of my grades were an F because I had refused to do homework as it still to this day does not make sense to me. I was lucky enough to get an immense amount of help with Special Ed teachers and managed to graduate. Around those times is when I had developed my bipolar disorder, I had gotten my first job a that time and managed to only last about two months before not showing up again at the time of graduation. At that time I didn't know what was going on, I remember I had gotten obsessed with riding my bike around town, I would go for nearly 10 hours a day without rest for about a few weeks. I had lost 20lbs and It was fairly noticeable and my mother had actually accused me of doing drugs and had kicked me out. Once I had moved back home I was actually given an antidepressant where I had started taking it as prescribed and had very adverse affects on me, I had started drinking a lot more often, getting very loose tempered but for the first time ever I was really able to be more social-able. Looking back now I see that I really did not leave the greatest of impressions. After I had to come to realize I had bipolar symptoms is when I had realized taking anti-depressants can cause extreme manic episodes.

I am now 24 as of the Feb 15th, I still struggle to this day to keep myself going in the right direction, I had finally gotten another job after all this time and been there since Sep 2012, and Now it is becoming more than I can handle. Being unmedicated and unable to even get the slightest help with either of my "illnesses" is getting quite frustrating. I had a very very bad experience the summer before I had gotten my job, I went to the ER with thoughts of suicide and looking for help, I was refused admittance and given information of places which could help me. In pursuit of getting the help I obviously needed I had found nothing but waste of time and money. The places the ER had refereed me to, one hadn't dealt with mental treatment in over 5 years, the others were only job placement agencies. Walking out of that situation with a bill of nearly $2,000 and only wasting my time to get help is when I had to push myself into giving up on seeking the help I need.

I work at a gas station operating a cash register, not a day goes by where I get customers being mean to me because I don't smile, say something specific to them, or somehow I am rude to them. I have extreme symptoms of anxiety if someone happens to touch my hands or me in general. I have to immediately go and wash my hands. I had been very hypersensitive and OCD my entire life, but manage to eliminate almost all OCD symptoms from my life. my mother had refused for so many years that I had Aspergers as that was a huge struggle to look past, once I had come to realize my Bipolar tendencies, she would get irritated with me. As she had always refused to believe my older brother was Bipolar after a horrible car accident watching his best friend die, he was diagnosed with bipolar by about 5 Therapists/Psychiatrists. I some times wonder if anyone likes me, It's very depressing, I had almost zero friends in school and gotten into fist fights regularly.


I had also researched your exact question many times in the past, and the symptoms for ADHD, bipolar, and Aspergers all have an overlapping effect. But it is to recognize the symptoms which are not present in the others and work backwards. It has come to my attention i may have something called "Mixed State Bipolar Aspergers" at the time it had freaked me out and actually started crying (which is so insanely rare for me).

I apologize for bumping a thread that is quite old now, but I had felt I needed to reply. Whoops.