Cyclothymia has many similarities to bipolar disorder. Most people's symptoms are mild enough that they do not seek mental health treatment, or the emotional highs feel nice, so they do not realise there's anything wrong or want to seek help. This means cyclothymia often goes undiagnosed and untreated.
Bipolar disorder can be confused with other conditions, such as depression, schizophrenia, BPD, anxiety, and ADHD. Detecting and diagnosing bipolar disorder may take some time.
As a consequence, Schwartz says, those with bipolar disorder are often misdiagnosed as having depression and may be given inappropriate treatment. “When bipolar disorder is missed, people can be put on medication that actually worsens the manic symptoms,” Schwartz says.
Sometimes interacting with someone with a bipolar diagnosis compared to interacting with someone with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder may feel similar. You may feel like you never know what to expect from one day to the next, with the person's mood or behavior being extremely variable.
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar is one of the most frequently misdiagnosed mental health issues. Somewhere between 1.4 and 6.4 percent of people worldwide are affected by bipolar disorder. However, it's hard to say which number is more accurate due to the frequency of wrongful diagnosis.
Epilepsy. Epileptic seizures can often present with changes in mood, behavior, and thought processes that can lead to their misdiagnosis as psychiatric disorders.
Borderline personality disorder is one of the most painful mental illnesses since individuals struggling with this disorder are constantly trying to cope with volatile and overwhelming emotions.
Arguments with your spouse, chilly weather, grief — a number of scenarios may provoke bipolar mania or depression. Certain medications, seasonal changes, and alcohol could trigger bipolar mood episodes, experts say. Here's why. Bipolar disorder is characterized by unusual shifts in mood and energy.
So no, not everyone who has bipolar disorder knows they have it. There are lots of reasons why someone with bipolar disorder might not realize it—or why they might deny having it even if they do.
Symptoms of cyclothymia
Mood swings will be fairly frequent – you will not go for longer than 2 months without experiencing low mood or an emotional high. Symptoms of cyclothymia are not severe enough for you to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and your mood swings will be broken up by periods of normal mood.
To diagnose bipolar disorder, a doctor performs a physical exam, asks about your symptoms, and recommends blood testing to determine if another condition, such as hypothyroidism, is causing your symptoms. If the doctor does not find an underlying cause of your symptoms, he or she performs a psychological evaluation.
No two people with bipolar disorder share the same thoughts or experiences, but there are some common thought patterns among most folks who have it. This includes cyclical thinking, manic and/or depressive episodes, suicidal ideation, and psychosis.
A team of researchers has developed a blood test to diagnose bipolar disorder by identifying certain blood biomarkers specific to the condition. This is a phenomenal breakthrough in the field of psychiatry. But why is it so significant?
Studies have found that having an autoimmune disease or suffering a severe infection increases the risk of also having bipolar disorder. In one recent study, researchers were looking for underlying causes of abnormal brain function that is seen in people with bipolar disorder and depression.
After a manic or hypomanic episode you might: Feel very unhappy or ashamed about how you behaved. Have made commitments or taken on responsibilities that now feel unmanageable. Have only a few clear memories of what happened during your episode, or none at all.
Individuals with bipolar disorder may have a heightened sense of self-confidence and a reduced filter in their speech during manic episodes. This can cause them to speak harshly and say things they may not mean or fully consider the implications of.
The psychopathology Arthur exhibits is unclear, preventing diagnosis of psychotic disorder or schizophrenia; the unusual combination of symptoms suggests a complex mix of features of certain personality traits, namely psychopathy and narcissism (he meets DSM-5 criteria for narcissistic personality disorder).
Depression. Impacting an estimated 300 million people, depression is the most-common mental disorder and generally affects women more often than men.
In the case of the “favorite person,” the individual with BPD prefers one person and wants to spend all their time with them. Unfortunately, if that person is busy—or if conflict emerges—anger and fear of abandonment often become triggered.
Paraphrenia refers to a chronic psychotic disorder characterized by a strong delusional component with preservation of thought and personality.