I have read that many people with AD/HD experience Bipolar-like behaviors. It was explained that it's almost like a defense mechinism.

When we accomplish a goal we feel really great then all of a sudden reality sets in or we start thinking about how many time we have failed in the past then we get really low.

It was also explained that we begin to do this so we and other people won't expect to much from us.

So, my question is when are these just AD/HD behaviors and when should we be concerned that it's a Bipolar Disorder?

Most Bipolar have a specific cycle, whether a fast cycler, slow cycler or a cycle triggered by stressors. Many of us , pre diagnosis, have talked at some point about feeling a depression coming on, or about feeling their creative muse ( or whatever ya wanna call it) coming on, or expecting all nighters.

Enviromental issues cause many of people to become sad or blue some times. Depression isn't being blue, it's a pervasive sense of uselessness, sadness, apathy etc. Depression for the Bipolar is a recurring thing. We rarely have one bout of depression and never have it happen again. It is something predictable, for some even to the point of knowing the day etc when a cycle will occur or begin or transition. Stats for Bipolars and suicide are frightening, so its safe to say sucidal thoughts are common, symptomatic even. This, also , isnt your garden variety "I wish I was dead" sense, which usually translates into "I wish this painfull situiation, job, time, etc would end" ( I know those times too :) ) this is a feeling of weariness, an emotional drain that can't be explained, it has to be felt. One truely wishes or longs or fantasizes about the false releif of death. there isnt even the energy to feel guilty about feeling this way. Thats why 1 out of 4 Bipolar women commit suicide. Not attempt, but actually finish the deed.

As for mania, there are different forms. There is the typical mania most of us know about, that can, if left unattented, lead to delusions, paranoia etc. Mania can also come as severe irritability, snappiness or crankiness. Someone once described it as a need to be angry, this compelling need to keep yelling. Or there is hypomania, which is the lighter lesser form of mania. It is still debillitating if left unchecked, it makes us go on spending sprees, take on too many projects, call old lovers from 15 years ago in a different country etc.

These can also occurr together or , in a mixed episode, to confuse things even more. Bipolar II is relatively new to us all and is still being defined and re-defined. I think that over the next ten years we will see an inflow of diagnoses of Bipolar as we are finding out now that many who we thought were not within the disorders bounderies actually are, which, of course, will mean misdiagnoses as hind sight is twenty-twenty. We need to be accurate, take in the whole picture and all the symptoms, revue each situation and be , above all else, prudent.

The final thing about Bipolar and how to tell if it is ADHD or bipolar is that Bipolar should be ruled out first, especially in children as giving stimulants to a bipolar child or adult can induce a mania that will never be fully recovered from, speed a persons cycle up and cause some serious psycho-social damage. If given a stimulant induces hyperactivity , then the issue is probably Bipolar Affective Disorder.

Long winded I know, but , what can i say :)