Crazy mood swings

@Mabelliot I’ve been in a similar situation about a year ago. Long story short I thought I had bipolar 2 cyclothymia cause I would get really optimistic after a period of feeling depressed, that I could do anything, and then a few hours later, I would feel depressed again. But everything was really mild, I would not describe my experience with the feelings of confidence, impulsiveness, irritability, depression, etc., as “extremely”, my levels of intensity with those feelings vary from “a bit” and “very,” but never “extremely.” so then I told my psychiatrist and I basically try to convince him that I had bipolar 2 or some kind of cyclothymia, because I was very convinced that I had it and I kind of molded my experience to getting that diagnosis because I thought it fit me and I was really desperate for a fix (I was in a really bad situation, living by myseIf and dealing with college). And so I succeeded in convincing him that I had my pro too, and he prescribed me a common mood stabilizer with an antipsychotic (both started and stayed at very low doses). And for a while, we kept increasing the dosages, but then I just felt like they weren’t working. And at that time, I did not have the current combo of medications that I am on now that is the most effective. That was before my ADHD diagnosis and OCD diagnosis, so the medication regiment of the mood, stabilizer and antipsychotic for bipolar 2 was really ineffective. However, it did stabilize my mood a little bit. And I was on it for a while, and it didn’t take long for me to start feeling like it was something else other than bipolar 2, so I thought I had BPD (borderline personality disorder) instead, but that wasn’t quite right, then I left off on a conclusion of an unspecified depression (leaning towards anxiety plus cold seasons induced- like a bit of seasonal depressive disorder). But I eventually got off of it after feeling like it didn’t help, and switched to adhd meds + antidepressant + another SSRI. So rn I’m at a rlly stable place, after getting my adhd meds and the two SSRIs, and after I transferred to a university close to my home and living with my parents, I no longer experience quick mood swing cycles (hourly or daily = really hopeful → depressed → repeat), since I needed medication to function and my parents emotional and physical support. But I still experience depression and anxiety (along with many other symptoms that don’t seem relevant to our topic right now), accompanied by mild feelings of optimism and hopefulness after feeling a bit depressed, but I don’t think this mood shift cycle is pathological or debilitating. I think much of my irritability and mood swings are OCD, GAD, or ADHD related (or a few combinations of them).

@Mabelliot I’m also still figuring it out (as many others are) so my interpretation and analysis of my event isn’t 100% best clinical case for education. Can you get a psychiatrist or at least a therapist to ask them for diagnoses? I think they would help since many members here arent professionally trained and some Of us lack the formal education. Personally, If I could go back in time, I would have really hoped for a psychiatrist or therapist specialized in disorders like bipolar, depression, and OCD at the same time.

@Mabelliot There are so many kinds of conditions that can affect rapid and consistent mood swings, like ADHD, BPD, The different Depression disorders, and Different anxiety disorders. Physical conditions/Disabilities/Illnesses can also Contribute to rapid and consistent mood swings (for me, chronic idiopathic fatigue and IBS also contributed to my mood problems). The Possibilities from so many factors And combinations of factors are simply too much to take into account For us OCDers To deduce and self diagnose. So I hope you will resist the temptations to give into your health OCD obsessions and compulsions, so as to not fall into a research and self-diagnosis rabbit hole as I did. I know you might be feeling that a definite diagnosis and some kind of reassurance/answer is needed and needed urgently, which is valid, I know I would because I often feel that way with my own OCD. If I could Go back in time, I willtry to not engage in too much research or analysis over what i have and leave it for the mental health professionals (but I also acknowledge that not everyone has that kind of privilege or insurance to be able to afford them). And that since I have already dealt with this kind of condition, I will be able to survive this condition. And that I am actually very capable of sitting with the discomfort and uncertainty, I just need To train it. Please also feel free to take my unsolicited advice with a grain of salt and take what you think helps and leave whatever Doesn’t. I can share more about my past experience and try to answer any questions u have if you want! I really hope it helps, And I apologize in advance if I said anything wrong 🙏

@VVbee And since I still have lots and lots of time left to figure myself out so I am not FRANTIC about an absolute answer, despite my health anxietys/OCD nagging me about it- but I am still bothered and a bit uncomfortable with the uncertainty since this has been going on for way too long and nonstop . (Every single second of my day, I wake up and OCD is the first thing I think of . And my mood all day can either stay normal for a while and then switch a few days later- or it's just completely random and crazy the entire day.) And at this moment I don't believe I have any physical conditions at the current moment besides Anemia and that's it . (I may have something else, but for now THAT specifically isn't something that isn't a major concern, besides if it's irrational and the concern only comes from Health OCD ) The questions I do have is what is GAD ? I may know it but the abbreviation isn't something I'm 100% familiar of . Also how was it getting an official diagnosis ? I always try my best to prepare for it but I don't know what to fully expect on what will be asked . Again, thank you for reaching out this was overall a very helpful response ! <: )🫶

@VVbee Oh oops I forgot to say what GAD is. It’s generalized anxiety disorder! I also am not certain if I have both ocd and gad but my current theory is that I do have general anxiety along with specific types of obsessions. Ill def take to my ocd therapists abt this more! For me, getting official diagnoses weren’t as grand or eye opening as I thought. I think that’s because almost every therapist and psychiatrist that I had didn’t focus too much on the labels and the diagnoses themselves, they focused on treating the symptoms. For example, my psychiatrist prescribed me a mood stabilizer when we thought that I had bipolar 2, but he wasn’t like, according to my knowledge in my training, you have officially been diagnosed with bipolar type II.” Which was what I thought would be. I think this type of formal and bureaucratic language style is typically used when you go to Neuro-psychological testing centers for cognitive abilities and learning disorders. To prepare for them evaluating my symptoms to determine what diagnosis I have, I typically write down every major symptom that is the most problematic (or causing the most issues in my life ) then the smaller ones I think are not as important. And looking by retrospectively, I wish I hadn’t trapped myself in a self fulfilling prophecy and into confirmation bias where I think I have a certain condition and I list out all the symptoms that I have for it and kind of look for the slightest details to kind of prove that I have that condition. Even when I didn’t have a certain symptom listed on the diagnosis criteria, I kind of uncontrollably and unconsciously distorted certain truths to fit a criterion (probably out of desperation). If I could go back in time, I wouldve listed out most or all the symptoms that I am dealing with and are causing me a lot of problems, then do just enough research on those symptoms on what they could mean. And before I start reading the articles explaining the conditions/illnesses I make a mental note to catch myself trying to confirm things that are not true and distort them. And then I would read the symptoms and find what resonates with me and how much they resonate with me. I write down the names of the symptoms with a physical present as in my body or my behaviors and I try to think about the frequency like how often does it happen: within a day, a week, a year. and I try really hard to think about the onset of that certain symptom. And I tried to rank them from the most debilitating to the least debilitating. I think one thing that I did well was that I tried to record the symptoms very objectively, minus confirmation bias part. If I caught the confirmation bias early on and I didn’t feel that desperate for an answer I think I would’ve gotten more accurate diagnoses and get them faster. Because for example, I might have saved abt 8 months of time of trying bipolar 2 medications (rn my educated hypothesis is that I don’t have bipolar 2), if I didn’t try so hard to convince the psychiatrist that I had bipolar 2. I also wish I realized that it was my OCD that was desperately trying to get an ultimate final and truthful diagnosis, and wish I realized that it was the uncertainty of dealing with an unnamed condition and the discomfort it causes. When they ask me about my symptoms they might give me a diagnosis even when I didn’t ask for them but most of my medical providers have first asked me if I heard about that certain condition they thought I had and respected my opinion and intuition. Then they proceeded with their explanation on something thwy think I had. Oh, and also, please do not feel like you have to follow all the steps that I listed below, even if you didn’t prepare for those sessions with the medical providers, most people can think of them most problematic and important symptoms on the spot. I just feel like as OCDers We are very prone to over prepare and over plan things. I’ve always had to advocate for myself and for them to evaluate me for a diagnosis , so other than questionnaires (like the ones we do before attending OCD therapy), I don’t have much experience with the medical providers being the ones in initiating the diagnosing. But I’m sure they would still ask the same questions either way, so here’s my experience with what they were asking: 1. “Why do you think you have that” 2. How long do you think you’ve had this for? When did this begin? 3. Do you have any biological family members or relatives who have medical conditions and illnesses? What are they? Yeah, I think that’s basically the core questions . I I think there are articles written on how to best prepare for being evaluated online, but I also understand that some of us, at least for me, don’t wanna go down the rabbit hole of researching haha And I can kind of relate to your situation, as I’m sure many others in this community can , that the OCD is very bothersome and uncomfortable and doesn’t seem like it’s going to end 😭 I also don’t know what to say other than I’m sorry that you have to deal with unpredictable mood shifts, and that you have to think about ocd every second 😫