Anyone have mental disorders besides ASD?

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ephemerella
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19 Mar 2009, 8:53 am

Callista wrote:
...I'm really interested in how having bipolar changes your social functioning... what happens when you're hypomanic? Fully manic? We know what happens with depression--withdrawal and poor functioning--but in NTs, being hypomanic often makes them more social, just as it also makes them more likely to take risks, do dangerous things, and end up killing themselves or contracting stds... of course there's the mixed-state thing, which can be truly unpleasant and come right out of a (hypo)mania... But I think research on bipolar autistic people might shed some light on the mood-related component of autism, if there is one.


I agree with you that there is a link. I think that there's a connection between the dopamine/adrenal/epinephrine brain chemistry that controls wakefulness, focus and energy regulation in the brain, and AS. In AS there are left-brain, right-brain issues sometimes and some of those aforementioned chemicals are more right-brained than left.



b9
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19 Mar 2009, 9:31 am

i have an unresolved oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).
i was never considered to be potentially progressing to "antisocial personality disorder" because i loved animals very much, and i did not wish to create harm or angst or pain ever for people or animals.

but i sometimes have the urge to annoy and pester.
i have the urge to behave insultingly toward authority figures like police etc. i am always defiant toward bossy people to the extreme.
it is ingrained in my psyche to resist in an unsavory way, the expectations of a person who feels "entitled" without my endorsement.

ODD is an urge that seems instinctive and impossible to ignore. it is like the urge to rip a constables hat off his head in order to read his serial number, and then tell him i only did it because i thought he would be in error if he quoted it to me verbally.

i never start to talk to a policeman until i see his serial number, and i have a kind of fun in making them angry at wanting to see their number.
i may shine a torch of mine on their hats to read their identity while they are shining their torches on me. it makes them extremely angry and that is kind of what i want.

i always lose and i must curtail my ODD urges.



Sublyme
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19 Mar 2009, 10:13 am

Dx's to date:
Classic Autism, ADHD, Psychosis NOS, Bipolar I Disorder (with psychotic features).

Dx's being looked into by new doctor:
PDD-NOS, Schizo-affective Disorder.

Callista wrote:

I'm really interested in how having bipolar changes your social functioning... what happens when you're hypomanic? Fully manic? We know what happens with depression--withdrawal and poor functioning--but in NTs, being hypomanic often makes them more social, just as it also makes them more likely to take risks, do dangerous things, and end up killing themselves or contracting stds... of course there's the mixed-state thing, which can be truly unpleasant and come right out of a (hypo)mania... But I think research on bipolar autistic people might shed some light on the mood-related component of autism, if there is one.


When I'm hypomanic, at first I function at a higher level than I am ever capable of. Like an NT, I do become more social. My house is clean, my laundry is done and I cook three meals a day for myself. I wear makeup and try to look pretty. Colors are brighter and more vivid, aromas are stronger. The world looks beautiful. I feel euphoric, I make jokes and giggle a lot (although I still don't understand NT humor). I want to be around people more. I want to talk. I get really motivated and very creative. I have big ideas and big plans. I drive too fast. I go on shopping sprees and end up in debt. I take spontaneous vacations on an impulse (pushes me further into debt). I think my hypomania is similar to the way my NT bipolar sister experiences hypomania.....although, as much as I do want to be a little social hypomanic butterfly....I am still socially inept, and I actually stim more when I'm hypomanic and manic. For me hypomanic doesn't mean happy all the time....I just experience very intense emotions.
When I am hypomanic I feel emotions more deeply than I normally do....happiness, profound sadness, jealousy, anger, etc. and because of this I am more prone to meltdowns.

Full blown mania brings psychosis with it. My train of thought diverges into two separate trains of thought that sort of fight for control of my brain....then a 3rd appears in pictures, then a 4th in music. It's like trying to read a book while in front of a TV, while listening to loud music, and having someone constantly try to talk to you. That book is my main train of thought, and it is constantly being derailed. This leads to a problem with incoherent speech and a decrease in my overall functioning. I might cook a meal, but I am too distracted to actually eat it. At work it takes me 90 minutes to make a photocopy. I stop sleeping and I hallucinate. My perception becomes altered. At times I experience derealization so severe that my reality falls apart and I am terrified because I do not recognize my surroundings at all. It's like being stuck in a nightmare you can't wake up from, or better yet, being on an acid trip that doesn't stop until you crash.

One thing I never am is delusional. I do not believe my multiple trains of thought come from anywhere besides my own mind. I am not being followed by the FBI or CIA, I do not think I have super powers. I don't think I'm famous. I don't think I can fly.

Depression for me includes apathy, anhedonia, and hypersomnia. I lose interest in everything except sleep. I have no emotions whatsoever. I feel empty. I stop caring for myself. My house is cluttered, my hair is probably dirty, my teeth might not be brushed as often as they should be. I don't' care what I look like. All I do is show up at work, go home and sleep. Sometimes I don't talk for days, just grunt and point. I do not eat regularly (since food doesn't taste good anymore why bother?). It's like all the color is gone from the world. It's a miserable few months, but I get to sleep through most of it.

I'm looking into how the seasons effect my shifts in functioning. I begin getting hypomanic in the late winter....I alternate between hypomania and mania in the spring and early summer, I'm mixed in late summer, and I become depressed in the fall and early winter. I've noticed using a light box in the winter can almost completely prevent the depression (too much light can trigger a rare winter mania)....I haven't found a way to get rid of the mania though. That will still come....even in the absence of a depression. It's the increasing length of the days that makes me manic, and the decreasing length of the days in the fall and winter that makes me depressed. Maybe moving to the equator would cure me of manic depression or this schizoaffective thing....whatever it is.



isnessofwhatis
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19 Mar 2009, 11:55 am

I have depression and anxiety and am going to be tested for others.



FireBird
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19 Mar 2009, 12:33 pm

I have been diagnosed with all kinds of things usually associated with autism. There are some in the past that are no longer true...I think I was diagnosed with OCD at one point, yes I do obsess but not about cleaning, and have no compulsions like constant hand washing which is classic of that disorder. My dad has it though. Let's get back to the point. Currently I am diagnosed with:
1. Autism duh, that's why I'm here!
2. Evil Schizoaffective disorder bipolar type (don't agree with that one because I'm not psychotic, even though the rest of the world thinks I am......how evil!)
3. I HAD DID with 10 personalities, now resolved, I guess they all "integrated" with me
4. GAD
5. Depression
6. In past, conversion disorder with pseudo seizures (no longer have them, they used to look like grand mal seizures, but they weren't true seizures and had to be taken around in a wheelchair in 2006 because they were constant!)
7. Occasional panic attacks, especially in crowds because I think they are reading my mind and talking about my weird thoughts.
8. Dependent personality disorder
9. In past schizotypal personality disorder (this is the hospital's diagnosis back in 2006 before I became full blown so called "schizoaffective")
10. In past borderline personality disorder (this isn't true, I went somewhere that they were doing a study on borderline so they diagnosed everyone with it and they diagnosed me with it because of the self harm)
Thank God its an even number! Oh no! That's the OCD talking! And its a multiple of 10...good news for Monk. Has anyone seen that TV show about this detective that has severe OCD?



SpongeBobRocksMao
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19 Mar 2009, 4:22 pm

Apart from Asperger's Syndrome I was diagnosed with OCD, but I'm not sure if that's a mental disorder.


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ruennsheng
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20 Mar 2009, 1:57 am

It is, in my opinion. I remember washing my hands all the time when SARS striked us...



just-me
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20 Mar 2009, 7:33 am

ADHD OCD AS and major depressive disorder with psychotic features.



kornchild
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20 Mar 2009, 10:54 am

I suspect I may have OCD but I'm not really sure.


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