What is bipolar spectrum? Will it become bipolar 1 or bipolar 2? 

You’re part of the reason I sought psychiatric care and got my diagnosis of Bipolar 2. I love this channel and all you do!

I personally don’t like bipolar spectrum. I have bipolar I disorder, and I already feel like people don’t realize the seriousness of the condition already when I say “I have bipolar disorder”. They don’t see the mania, the psychoses, the hospitalizations. They picture someone who is a bit up and down but nonetheless is pretty typical. I feel like I need to go into personal detail just to get across that the illness has been a significant barrier to me. If I said I had schizophrenia, people view it completely differently even though I’ve had some of the same outcomes as someone with schizophrenia. I think doing such a broad categories of “bipolar spectrum” would add even further confusion of what the trying to articulate what the experience is like.

Doc you are doing so much more for us, iam pray to God for all your goodness, you stay healthy always. Doc you are best

I’ve been struggling to figure out if I’m bipolar, or have borderline personality disorder. I’m currently on high doses of mood stabilizers and antidepressants. My dad was “up and down” his entire life and my mother and I called it cycles. I never thought much into it until he committed suicide a few years ago. I’m a lot like my dad and a month before his suicide I remember telling him how to manage the “cycles” and to remember that the depression would pass. Both of us would always go through phases and obsess about whatever we were getting into at that time, but the interest always faded. Both of us have/had extreme, hard to control anger and impulsivity. However, both have had fear of abandonment. I’ve become worried about whether or not I will inevitably meet the same fate as my father and if my life will ever stabilize.

Tracy, you probably already are, but you should be SO proud of yourself. I've watched your videos over the last several years and they've helped me incredible amounts. The same goes for all of the other tens of not hundreds of other people that you've helped. You have a gift. You are precious. A healer. Thank you. 🙏

What I appreciate about you is your empathy and respect for mental illness.

Thank you, Dr. Tracey! You inspire me to want to pursue my degree in psychology. I believe people can help themselves when they understand themselves.

Going through many mental issues and your videos help me not feel like I'm crazy or something is wrong with me. Your videos have helped me so much thank you! You shine a light on mental health and we need more people who are as passionate about helping mental illness's patients as you are. Thank you Dr.Tracey. I wish I could have you as my psychiatrist.

While I'm excited for you to have gained such a broad audience, I"m so sorry for you that you've done so many videos on bipolar disorder. and from countries with different medical practices. Your bipolar playlist/series covers SO MUCH and it seems like the questions just keep coming! I hope this hasn't become burdensome for you and you manage to find something joyful about continuing to talk about this. Be safe!

once again another great informative straight talking video from Dr T.Marks ..oh btw, love your necklace

So I have been diagnosed with bipolar type II since 2016 and the meds helped me. I believe my ADHD still affects me in my progress and I know there is comorbidity. I would love to see a video about bipolar disorder & ADHD comorbidity.

I just love your show/you! Very easy on my ears, I also love your teaching skills. I am 77 an looking forward to a lot more of your shows. Be well, be safe, Cheers!

Thank you Dr Mark's. You're a very compassionate person and I find comfort by listening to your videos as it helps me deal with my mental health. 🙂

Thanks for demystfying mental health. All you have to do is ask if you need help. Visit your doctor first - they can help relieve you symptoms and give you some reassurance that it's OK not to be able to copy with any situation. It may not solve your problems, but it's a start. This has personally helped a lot since COVID. We've all had a lot to copy with recently. Thanks Tracey

Protect this woman at all costs

You're the best doctor ever! I wish more doctors in the mental field followed your example. Your videos have been tremendously helpful to me. If only you were my therapist!

You’re videos have been so helpful. I was diagnosed with depression. Then a couple years later Major depression & Generalised anxiety. Then a couple of years with treatment resistant depression. And now finally at age 26 after trying a mood stabiliser after thing I could be on the bipolar spectrum; this are looking up! Your videos are so informative and makes me understand why my psychiatrist has taken the steps she has.

Human mind is incredibly complex it's no surprise to me the wide variety of clinical mental illness from A to Z. I saw it on Wikipedia it was disturbing! Very much admire people such as yourself who make this world a better place

I really like your new lighting. It’s must softer on you.

Hi Dr. Thankyou for the representation. I found it interesting and watched it twice, back to back. I always look forward to your vids 😁.

omg thank you so much! I'm currently overwhelmed with the level of gratefulness, yet simultaneously frutration; it's hard to hold tears back... at the age of 25 I've essentially lost hope for any psychiatrist being great without greatness (meaning condescension) I've been proofen wrong today! please, to any weird reader who might read, excuse my confusing english

The link to the video on psychotic depression actually links to the video titled "3 Ways ADHD Makes You Think About Yourself". I also wanted to thank you for the videos on bipolar disorder. It's helped me come to terms with my diagnosis.

Thank u Dr.Tracey for what u do🙏🏼 u really help a lot with my anxiety and panic disorder.

I love your videos. And I love that you did one on bipolar spectrum. I’ve been reading work by James Phelps and Nasir Ghaemi, and their work resonates with my experience so much. I don’t have obvious cycles of hypomania, just a few features, and sometimes only for 1-2 days when I do have more features. But I do have recurrent depression, that co-occurs with anxiety, oscillation between hypersomnia and insomnia, agitation, extreme dysphoria, and some atypical symptoms. I’ve been on a lot of different antidepressants, and I’ve never done particular well on them. Also, I once had a clear hypomanic episode while on nefrazodone decades ago, but it never happened again on any of my other antidepressants. So that doesn’t qualify for bipolar based on the DSM, either. Antidepressants just make me... agitated and dysphoric. I recently had a mood stabilizer added to my antidepressant and it’s made a world of difference. I’m not out of the woods completely, but lamotrigine has definitely made an impact. I really feel like for a lot of us there is more to depression than just depression. Even though we aren’t clearly bipolar (or even bipolar-NOS) based on DSM criteria, it’s something that looks and acts bipolar-like. It’s frustrating that it’s taken me decades to finally be put on a mood stabilizer, but it gives me hope that there is a whole set of new tools and meds available to me now. Thanks again for your clear, science-based videos!

Thanks for your wonderful work, Dr. Tracey! Greetings from Peru.

Doc. I care for you more. Doc. You keep producing more and more videos, about all pyschiatric conditions.

You are amazing at making a complex topic simpler

Thank you Dr Tracey for covering this difficult topic. I have still to have a basic understanding.

Thank you for helping broaden people's knowledge. It helps me begin to articulate what I need to when it comes to my mental health.

Thank you Dr Mark's. My diagnosis is bipolar spectrum and OCD . I enjoy your videos as you make them interesting and informative . I find your videos very comforting . Have an awesome day !

Keep going Doc. Tracy. And be safe and take care.

Your programmes are great for explaining to other people near me what is going on in my life. Thank you.

I'm greatful for your brilliance ownr Dr.Tracy

I’m so happy I found your videos. Thank you for doing what you’re doing!

I don't really like the concept of a 'bipolar spectrum'. Think it would cause a lot of unnecessary confusion for patients and clinicians in an already complicated field.

Awesome video! However I am distracted by how GORGEOUS your hair is

Love what you’re teaching! Dr. Marks, I have a loved one in DIP, I believe, and the psychosis is something I’m not sure how to deal with. You say no argument will change they’re mind and it’s been that way all winter. She thinks people are out to destroy her house and her, it’s so bad. Do you do teleconference, zoom, Skype sessions? I trust you. I’m at my wits end. She is seeing and hearing things so bad and she don’t even get it they are not there. It’s the most insidious thing on earth to deal with..

Thank you, Dr. Tracey. This is such a great video.

I don’t have a bipolar diagnosis. I originally had dysthymia for years, and then I suddenly had a major depressive episode in my late 20s. My first major depressive episode was when I was 15. But I think I have atypical depression, because my mood improves if a bad situation improves. I told this to my psychiatrist, but she’s not super enthusiastic about trying to make a diagnosis after seeing me as a patient for several years. It’s a bit weird that the practitioners of my clinic have this hesitancy to reevaluate a patient they’ve seen for years.

Manic depressive Insanity. How Dr's view mental illness has made great strides, thank knowledge for that. The Insane Asylum is where bipolar ppl such as myself would be chillin at just a few decades back. Subjected to electric shock treatment, & if they thought symptoms were more serious, a lobotomy would've been performed. Scary!

Dr Tracey thank you for what you do. I would like to ask if Epilim is a mood stabiliser or not. I am writing from South Africa and my son was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder (1) I say 1 because of my own observations from listening to videos as I wanted to understand this a bit better. Thank you. Yvonne Benjamin

Hi! I believe at 8:57 you meant to say "antidepressant alone". Love the videos! Very helpful

Thank you. This really helps me navigate all my diagnoses.

Ty, Dr. Marks for your explanation and knowledge of mental illness. I am a NP student/advanced practice mental/public health nurse. I can appreciate your knowledge on mental health. Plz keep do8ng what you do. Ty.

Extremely well said. Thank you, doctor.

Very informative video. Thank you, Dr Marks.

Thank you Dr. Marks! You are great and oh so informative. I love watching your videos on bipolar disorder. You probably won’t see this comment, but I hope you create a video about how to calm down mania in between doctor’s visits. My psychiatrist prescribed seroquel and zyprexa to address the mania, and I’m becoming more stable...but it still flares up and I’ve been a train wreck. I don’t want to bother any of my providers over the weekend, and would rather calm down on my own if I can. It’s turning out to be very hard though. This is harder than I thought and exhausting! 😔

This makes a lot of sense! Thank you!

Hi Dr Marks, I've been following your channel for quite a while now; they're super helpful and clear. I wonder if you could go into treatment-resistance for bipolar 2? Your video on treatment-resistance is mostly about unipolar depression, and so I would like to know whether the criteria for treatment-resistance for bipolar 2 are the same/similar. Thank you so much!

Doc. Whatever you discuss in video is very true

In UK we use the ICD so term bipolar spectrum disorder (and clinical notes add code for current mood state ) I have only had it been used when bipolarity, yes including cyclothymia but not aware of it used with the other dx. But some people still refer to the types 1 and 2 as it can help to see why we don't have the same patterns of symptoms, but spectrum covers the idea that we don't all fit neatly in boxes, and that can move along it. (rather than like the diabetes types that are totally different processes and not a spectrum)

Hi Doc, Can you make a video explaining main differences between schizoaffective disorder and bipolar with psychotic features.

Recovery options for any mental health disorder is a topic that includes various avenues of therapy some grounded in science while others involve non traditional remedies. Could you do a series on coping or healing from mental health distress?

Hey, Dr. Marks. A little over 2y ago I was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder after a long depressive episode + SSRI's = hypomania. Since then I've been on Lithium + Lamictal and life's been great. I've had 2 depressive episodes post my diagnosis but no hypomania whatsoever. Can someone have bipolar 2 with just one antidepressant-induced hypomanic episode?

Hi Dr. Marks! I love your videos. I’ve been prescribed a lot of meds for a long time, and I just recently looked up what they’re all for. I am feeling very drugged and not very treated, if that makes sense. So yesterday, I had the opportunity to see a new prescriber for the first time, and she agreed to start tapering me off Topamax because she couldn’t understand why I was on it. I feel like this is a huge step in the right direction. I feel like I’m taking my health in my own hands for the first time in a long time. 😊

I think "bipolar spectrum" would describe me rather well...as someone with reacuring depressions and mild what might be hypomania (I've been diagnosed with bipolar 2), but mostly is just creative productivity, racing thoughts and insomnia, but I don't have bad impulsivity and pretty often it is still mixed with some depressive symptoms and feeling inspired rather than supereuphoric. I personally feel like bipolar illness spectrum should have reacuring non situational drepression with a bit of "something else" and or mixed symptoms under it. After all things like "irritability" are rather subjective on a spectrum things in real life. For example from my life I become more than normal anxious about strangers in my personal space like a person sitting next to me on a bus, but I don't like snap at people so are internal experiences that don't show much on the outside "irritable" enough to count. Or a person a might have 3 out of 4 required symptoms of a diagnoses, but they might affect their life badly or a person b who has mildly all symptoms, but is high functional so is person a) "healthy" or only having "a mild" illness compared to person b? Or person having 6 symptoms where a lot of stuff amounts to a whole lot of "straws on a camels back.

Definitely like the spectrum models, they really do help a lot of people who don’t regularly fit inside the small boxes we’ve created.

This new trend of making all mental illnesses fall on a single broad spectrum really worries me honestly.

Hi doctor thanks very good job keep it up lovely 🙏🙏

Dear Dr Marks. Thank you so much for your work. Your videos help so much. My own therapist is a bit...well...he said I am bipolar than I am not. Everything is confusing. Thank you so much. Greetings from Germany.

There is definitely more then just depression and mania😭,i know one guy with bipolar,he is showing alot of comorbidities of anxiety,OCD,adhd

Thanks for a great informative video.

Bipolar and depression are one. Irritability and aggression is shown in depression as well with moods going from high to low

hello dr. marks, i am living with bipolar 1 disorder and i am also black. can u please do a video on dealing with bipolar in communities of color? i find there is a reluctance to "believe" symptoms and a common response of "there is nothing wrong with you, you just need jesus" or "you will grow out of it"...

Is bipolar really episodic though? Of course there are distinct episodes of depression and mania, but even during "euthymic" periods many bipolar people experience subclinical symptoms of either pole, such as dysthymia and mild psychomotor agitation. I know I haven't felt the same since my first episode, even when my mood is relatively normal.

Thanks for your videos. They are helpful.

*Learning about Bipolar so I can accurately represent it in my character* *realizing I have some of the symptoms* *freaking out*

I feel like Bipolar spectrum might be too broad 😕I feel as though the diagnoses that are already in place, allows for treatment that is specific to the way a person presents.

Hi Dr. Marks! Could you do a video about the different features that can show up with bipolar disorder? For example, when someone has bipolar 1 disorder with psychotic features or mixed features? Why do these features occur in the first place? Also, why do some bipolar people only get manic episodes but never have a depression? Hope to hear from you!

Thank you Dr Tracy for this video

Love to know more on anxious depression. What it looks like and how people we experience

Could you do a video on anti-depressant induced mania?

Learn what you can about your illnes. You're the voice of reason.

I'm so gratefull of her work

Hi dr.Tracey, I'm Esya from Indonesia. On this January I was diagnosed Bipolar with Hypomania and deprresion symptomps. It takes about 3 months to admit that Iam Bipolar after diagnosed. And I never take the medicine till now because I'm scared of getting addict with it. But, I realized without moodstabilizer, the symptoms of Hypomania always occures in my self frequently, almost every month eventhough it only happened 4 days, a week or even 2 weeks. Before I went to psychiatrist this year, I experienced my first deprresion followed by mania episode at 27 years old, and now I'm 32. That means I was Bipolar for 5 years, I lost my interest on working, career and being jobless now, I also have some difficulties to make a friend with new people or failed to make a relationship with a man that I loved.I strugling a lot with Ups and Downs on my mood disorder. I also confused, because in my family there is nobody have bipolar symptomps like I did (Not even my parents, grand ma, or uncle and cousin). I'm the first person who experienced this.The question is, Does Bipolar can be happened 100% only by environtmental factor? and not because of inheritability. And if I discipline to consume my medicine, can I be the gud person like I used to be? I really wanna fix the chaotic that I've made and forgetting my traumatic moment in the past... Can you give the explanation to the viewers how moodstabilizer and antidepresant working in our brain :) Thank you for the insgiht you've shared for this video love from Jakarta

Dr Marks, How are you doing during this pandemic.? I am getting quite bored but enjoying it. Very interesting video very good topic of discussion anything about bipolar I am interested in. I don’t know if it’s good news but I am trying Vraylar 1.5 tonight for the first time I don’t know is it better or worse than Latuda will find out I’ll let you know on a future video. Take care and be safe. General repair

Never heard of the term “Bipolar Spectrum.” Let’s keep it simple.

Thank u doc for this incredible channel! i have a question that has been worrying me for some time now. I have heard that the human brain STILL not fully developed until the ages 25/30, so my question is can antidepressants affect the development of the brain negatively? i am 22 yo and have been on antidepressants for two years. Thanks a lot

Thank you for the history lesson.I agree with Brave Starr though

I watched few of your videos and you diagnosis is spot on. I (Borko) am a social worker, certified youth worker and sport psychologist and I can't understand why in the western psychology your main tool to work with the people are pills. I have many clients who tried suicide, are bipolar, depressed, have mania..... but I have never used pills and even if they are on pills (from the psychiatrists) slowly we are getting them out of the system. So my question is why don't you go deep into the person see where the ANXIETY started and turn it into LOVE = I have done it with many clients it's working just fine. My starting point is that everything starts from two basic emotions LOVE and ANXIETY and most of the problems people are facing are because the ANXIETY progressed into LOW-SELFCONFIDANCE, INPATIENTCE, AGRESSION, MANIA.... just saying why the whole industry is focused soo much on pills, why don't you learn from Buddhism, Taoism, Stoicism....

I do not agree with the “fire and ash” analogy of Bipolar as a survivor of Bipolar 1. I get mixed episodes at times after mania. I’ve also battled bipolar depression and later went into remission for 2 years. That’s what makes bipolar so difficult to treat; luckily, I’m on a good combo of mood stabilizer and atypical antipsychotics

Oh, my Gosh... It's so complicated! :-O

love you and thanks for sharing and i hope you had a happy easter :)

Have you ever heard of or dealt with a patient diagnosed as Bipolar II Mixed rapid cycling? How complex can diagnoses become in treating bipolar patients? How do you even create a treatment regimen and prescribe the right medication(s)? What percentage of Bipolar individuals are consistently misdiagnosed and improperly medicated as unipolar depression into their 40s, or even into their 50s and 60s?!

Dear Dr. Marks, I have just discovered your videos a week or so ago, and first of all, thank you so much for doing this and taking the time to discuss mental health and in the end, just plain health. I have soooooo many questions because I'm basically a mess......but my pressing inquiry has to do with personality, recently I discovered the term "ambivert" referring to a middle ground between extro- and intro- vert, which brings me to my question, Can one person have a neutral, middle or centered (don't know how to name it he he) personality?, where he/she is not one end or the other of a type of personality, it's like a having both of worlds, it's not a personality that is strongly marked, it's more balanced when it comes to feelings, skills, thoughts, actions, desires and decisions. It's never black or white, nor one end or the other, it's basically in the middle. Hope my question makes sense and sorry for the loooooong rambling, this is my first time commenting on your channel....

Hello Dr. Marks. Your videos are amazing! I started to develop symptoms that I was on the bipolar spectrum when I was 14. I had the suicidal thoughts, the increase in goal directed activity, severe shifts in my mood, crying, etc. Even though I went to several therapists, I didn't get the diagnosis of bipolar type 2 until I was 28 sadly. I really wish I knew I was bipolar sooner or at least have known that I had a suspected mood disorder. Mental illness definitely runs in my family. Have you ever diagnosed someone with bipolar type 1, 2 or 3 when they were minors?

Dr. Tracey I was diagnosed with bi-polar depression and my healthy state improved a lot with treatment/medicine....I never had hallucinations (hearing voices and such stuff ) but what I've been realizing from time to time are scatttered thought. I also have a diagnostic as borderline....but I really would like to know if scattered thoughts make part of Bi-polar disorder....or this kind of condition is maybe associated to schizotypical disorders....I'm really confused.... Thank you.

i love her she makes me cry in her videos

do you take patients? I would love to speak with you. I'm so lost on what is wrong with me. I recently seen a psychiatrist through dr on demand and she gave me abilify and seemed to think I have some schizophrenia. I don't believe so tho after watching your video on Schizophrenia. Im 43, and I changed in my early 20's used to be out going, funny.. still am SOMETIMES, but I don't trust people, go through years at a time where I don't speak to ANYONE except my kids and fiance. 8 years ago I had a hallucination, that was so intense, it was after waking up, but it stopped and started depending on if my eyes were open or closed.. I opened my eyes, it stopped, closed my eyes and could hear a female in the room speaking to me, at first I heard the mario brothers theme song, for like 40 seconds, opened my eyes and it stopped.. closed them and heard her say "before you play the game, you must learn the rules" and then I opened.. it was gone, closed them again and I heard HER and a man speaking on the other side of the wall, it was muffled.. I couldn't make out what they were saying but I knew it was about me. Then suddenly while straining to hear them a radio noise came on, white noise REALLY LOUD and I ran out the room. .there was nothing in the room to make that noise I listen to alot of audio, I record EVP"S and I hear the voices in the audio CONSTANTLY, I hear them say my name from time to time when laying down to go to sleep. My job has really suffered. around the time I had this episode I had just started my job and was moving up to a leader and worked really hard and now I can barely go to work w/out wanting to kill myself. I struggle cause 90% of the day I think about my mom taking her last breath 5 years ago. I had to take her off life support while she was in a comma and watched her die.. now my father died in the last year and my last 2 grand parents. I feel so alone in the world. I always feel like something bad is going to happen. I have tried to change my thought process and if I focus on it I can change the negative thoughts but it's so hard.. and they come right back as soon as I stop focusing on thinking positive. my fiance almost left me cause for 2 years I totally changed.. I would say most people would think it's a delusion that I think I can communicate with any one that has died. I feel like I am saving them, helping them go to the light. I honestly feel like i'm not in the same reality I used to be in, and everyone around me is slightly different. I believe I died and instead of going to heaven/hell I shifted realities.. I believe there are infinite versions of reality. My memories do not line up with this reality. The JFK assassination, was different, the lindbergh baby that was taken in early 1900 was never found.. but now the killer was found and killed.. and the baby was found dead. I swear on my LIFE I remember watching an unsolved mysteries episode on the case in the 90's and it never happened. I go days, weeks months sometimes and feel this way.. no energy, depressed and think about death.. and I'll have weeks where it feels like I have been reborn and I can breath, no weight on my chest, I talk to people, joke have fun.. but a few days later I'll walk past them at work like I don't know them cause I don't want to speak to anyone. I have had some delusions at work that groups of people were out to get me fired, that they hated me.. so much so I left shifts from nights to days.. and for a month or so I felt so much better.. now it's back again and these people are out to get me. I have been vaccinated and had covid after, about 6 months later, but i constantly fear that I have covid and miss work to get a covid test.. I would say out of the last year I have taken 20 covid tests. I just know I'm going to get it and die like my dad and grand father. I heard my mother a few years ago in this recording I did tell me that she loves it there, that she can't wait for me to join her, and wants me to hurry up. it was 100% her voice. I can play ANY of the clips I hear things to my fiance and she hears NOTHING.. at all. I was put on different anti psych meds 2 years ago from my GP and I was minutes away from leaving work and killing myself. She had me on 3 ssri's at the same time. There are no options near me within 2 hour drive to see a psychiatrist. I want to know what's wrong with me. I know my father had bi-polar and my mother had anxiety. I say all the time I have anxiety but it's really stress.. I stress about EVERYTHING. oh.. a cuople years ago I was SURE the moon dissapeard every few wks.. there would be weeks when the moon would not come out. I would ask people where it was and they would look at me like I was crazy.. but it's True. The sun used to be YELLOW as well.. now it's WHITE. I'm 100% certain that I'm not in the same dimension that I was born in. This one sucks.. all my family is dead, I am stuck in this ground hogs day of working at a place that I HATE just to make a living, to pay for bills that I can't enjoy cause I'm working and don't enjoy ANYTHING anymore. I have been on the abilify for about a month now and I can't tell it's done anything, if anything I hear voices MORE now.. I listen to rain when I go to sleep on the pc.. I constantly hear my moms voice in the rain.

i love your videos!!

The DSM appears to be moving more and more in the direction of the spectrum framework. Not exactly in the way you present it, but in the sense that one may have overlapping symptoms of depression and (normally) hypomania, often at the same time or as officially called "mixed states", but without meeting official criteria for bipolar. The hypomania part is usually dysphoric rather than euphoric, presenting with agitation, anxiety and irritability. The recurrence of depression in spite of continued treatment, and most importantly, the worsening of the overall condition of the patient over time, tends to guide treatment in the direction of mood stabilizers or combination strategies instead of antidepressant monotherapy, to which this set of patients respond best.

I wish you were my psychiatrist. I’m just barely discovering the possibility that I am bipolar.

Oh god! I’m scared I might have bipolar disorder spectrum, but I will be getting diagnosed soon. I have a parent that could potentially has on diagnosed bipolar disorder due to trauma of having a child. But for awhile I thought I had bipolar disorder 2 and severe depression, and have had hypomania episodes but it has been perceived more positively from others, however I have had a possibility of a manic episode in front of others particularly when substance is involved. Thank you for this video it made me realise a few things.

Thanks!

I just realized my mom was bipolar. When she was depressed she would say she was gonna whoop me but didn’t do it until she was in mania….what a revelation.

Hi Dr Marks! Do you have knowledge about gifted people? And how there can sometimes be similarities in they way they function with bipolar or schizophrenia ? And second question, not really related, is a daily thinking about self harm a common, normal thing during depression recovery? Is it something to worry about? Sorry if my question is a mess, I'm French... 😅

Dear Doctor Tracey Marks, I'll try and keep my comment to less than 5 Paragraphs ! At the end of the day I believe Psychiatry will stop putting individuals suffering from some form of mental Illness in a particular box..... Rather each patient will be treated as a unique individual that has certain symptoms that can be divided into two broad categories 1. Psychotic features that represent thought disorders which effect the patients ability to think clearly or perceive reality in their life. 2. Depressive, hypomanic or manic features that represent mood disorders that effect the patients ability to enjoy life in a stable environment. Treatment plans will become symptom based rather than diagnosis based and each treated symptom will lie somewhere on a broad spectrum. As an example if you look at the isolated case of mood based disorders. Mood has always been described as being either depressed, normal or manic. Then with the passing of time hypomania was introduced as a new previously unrecognised description of mood. Previously, people that suffered only depressive symptoms where labelled Depressives. If the mood switched between depression and mania then they were labelled Manic Depressives. Once hypomania was recognised as a particular mood state an new Mental Illness box was created Bipolar II. Previously, sufferers that had symptoms of both depression and hypomania were put in the Depressive box as hypomania was not a recognised mood disorder. Effectively mood based disorders now lie on a spectrum of mood conditions varying from depression only to depression with hypomania to depression with mania which can often include psychotic elements. I have suffered from Bipolar II which was first diagnosed as depression when I was 20 years old but changed to Bipolar II at age 30 years old when hypomania became a recognised mood disorder. Thankfully, numerous ECT treatments throughout my life have kept me alive to my current age of 55 years. Similarly I think the isolated case of thought disorders will become spectrum based varying from patients suffering psychotic features only through to combinations of thought disorders combined with elements of mood disorders. Currently that spectrum would start with Schizophrenia with psychotic features only, to Schizoaffective Disorder ( Bipolar Type or Depressive Type ), to Bipolar with psychotic features. At the end of the day we all end up being placed in some kind of box buried 6 foot under. In the interim I prefer to look at life by viewing each individual as a unique special living Human Being that consists of both a physical component, a mental component and an undetectable soul component closely linked to what one would describe as a conscience. One could apply the spectrum approach to model for all Human Beings. Their physical components can currently clearly be described along a spectrum associated with each physical feature, their mental symptoms will be measured along a psychotic spectrum and mood spectrum and their conscience will be measured along a spectrum ranging from self centred to whole of life centred. Examples 1. Jesus Physical components : Male, Olive Complexion, Dark Hair, Green Eyes, Average Build Mental components : Bipolar II with some mild psychotic elements. Conscience components : Whole of life centred. Recommended Drug Therapy : Seroquel, Lamotrigine, SNRI Anti Depressant 2. D J Trump Physical components : Juvenile Male, Orange Complexion, No Hair, Black Eyes, Obese Mental components : Bipolar 1 with extreme psychotic and narcissist elements Conscience components Self centred Recommended Drug Therapy : Cyanide

How do you know some doctors aren't wrong on how they diagnose patients with bipolar disorder, when there's a high likelihood it's PMDD, or some type of mood disorder that hasn't been explored yet? Not all mania symptoms equates bipolar disorder, the brain is just has complicated as the Universe, there's always new major findings almost every day, hence every year.

Thank you for all the great information I just wonder if bipolar condition can be change to become normal one day? And what happens if I stop taking my medicine that I take for 3 years

Aren’t there lots of people with chronic unipolar depression who have never had and will never have mania or hypomania? Why would it be beneficial to put them into a new category?