What does bipolar look like in an aspie teen?

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My son has had an AS diagnosis for 4 years and has had anxiety related to school issues, for which he has been taking Celexa. Due to his mood swings, a psychiatrist has suggested that he may be bipolar. What kind of behavior would a bipolar aspie have? How would his mood swings look?

Well I'm not bipolar nor am I a clinician but I'll do my best to give my perspective.

Bipolar/manic depression is awful. It is a ruthless and cruel mental illness. People who suffer from it rarely have inner peace. They know when they are in their manic phases that it doesn't last forever, and the depression is dark and unforgiving. People who have bipolar are ill and need constant care throughout their lives. Without intricate support systems, they are at very high risk for suicide. Medications, older and newer, can greatly help with the mood swings, and they tend to be of above average intelligence, at least in my observation.

But on the bright side, ASDs often carry with them symptoms of other conditions. A lot of doctors don't understand ASDs and are quick to diagnose other mental afflictions. I have a lot of symptoms of manic depression myself but am absolutely, positively not bipolar.

People with ASD are naturally moody, because it takes so little to make us go off the deep end. If this psychiatrist really believes your son is bipolar he should be prescribing him medication-- lithium, or some of the newer antipsychotics. Asperger's or not, bipolar individuals are a danger to themselves at any age and need to be on a med regimen.

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I am currently an 18 year old going through the diagnosis stage of bipolar, as well as having diagnosed Aspergers. My mood swings have become very noticeable in the last two years, however I've had symptoms since I was 12.

Bipolar is a tricky mental illness, as it's affects can vary from person to person. I have a diagnosed bipolar friend who refuses to take her medication for religious reasons, and with all due respect to her she acts like a bit of a nut-job. She has a sunny and bright personality that everyone falls in love with, but is a Nazi sympathiser. However, her reason is she liked the 'organisation' of the Nazi regime, not its ideals (?)

This is not a typical case, but I know a lot of bipolar teens that have less than favourable characteristics. As long as medication is taken like a lamb they can control these symptoms and lead relatively normal lives. However, the only bipolar aspie I know is me, so I can only give an answer based on my own characteristics.

I have manic episodes which are extreme for roughly 12 hours, and leave me on a high for a couple days. I've been described as looking as if I've taken drugs, I've been so full of energy and happy. I can't sit down, laugh, dance, won't stop talking and can't focus. I can be easily taken advantage of at this point, as I become very agreeable to almost any proposition. This has happened to me maybe three times in the last year. Otherwise it's just as if I'm really confident and happy for a couple days, nothing out of the ordinary.

My depressive episodes are more frequent however. My psychologist has a theory that I know they're coming because of my behaviour beforehand, but don't realise until a couple minutes beforehand. I can become very anxious or very angry/depressive. The anxious is the worst. I have panic attacks, get paranoid thoughts and become a social outcast even further than normal. When I become angry/depressive, I feel like the whole worlds against me. I can start a full blown argument over something as trivial as a dinner. I feel an extreme urge to hurt myself, either through cutting, overeating or excessive alcohol/weed smoking. I manage to resist the physical harm as often as humanly possible. The depression after the initial freakout takes a while (sometimes a week) to completely ebb away.

any other questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks for the description of your mood swings. My son seems to have mood swings that occur every few hours or so, although sometimes I think the moods may be determined by whether things are going well or badly in the on-line computer game that he is obsessed with. When he plays his game, he stays in his room. I can tell his mood shifts by the way he is talking to his online friends on the ventrilo. One minute he will be happy, jovial, and complementing the friend--a few minutes later, he is cursing the person, telling them they are the worst. He sounds like a bully, and there is a raw mean-ness to him. He becomes a real a%%hole!! Do bipolar people feel the need to be mean and nasty to others? That's the part I can't bear.

So we are having him see a psychologist to have him assessed for bipolar. I understand that people with AS can get very angry, have meltdowns, etc., and I pretty much know the triggers for his meltdowns. But this mean and--dare I say it--abusive--personality does not seem like AS to me. On the other hand, maybe its not bipolar.

I don't think they feel the need to be mean and nasty per se, It's more that the mood changes so quickly that they feel angry with that person for no reason. It makes sense in their mind at that moment, but if you ask them to explain it they simply can't, or come up with an explanation which is deeply flawed in logic. I remember flipping out at my mum once because she asked me to make a carb-free cheese sauce. Not exactly something to lose your rag about, but I was already feeling down and just went nuts.

AS can share a lot of symptoms with bipolar, depending on the severity and the individual person. For instance, being socially excluded goes hand in hand with both. That is what makes diagnosis so difficult, especially with pre-existing conditions.