Hello all you informed people...
I am diagnosed bipolar, ADD, somewhat depressed and anxiety ridden... My question is this.........I never get depressed to the point where I have suicidal ideation and never had.......so I don't swing to that deep depression side of bipolar.....but I do become disenchanted with life in general from time to time....and I do have my crazy manic stuff going on ......so is that the other side of the mania really considered a depression?:confused:

You don't have to have deep, suicidal depression to be bipolar.

You can have a "normal" state and it can swing to some high state and back.
The point is, it is bipolar in nature, and thus called bipolar, or "manic-depressive" disorder. It is also possible to have hypomania and be depressed and manic at the same time. Also, one does not have to be extremely bipolar... that is, one can be "just a little" bipolar... etc.


The thing about bipolar is that the swings can make life very difficult, and for those who have deep depression it can be particularly difficult...

Me :D

Hello all you informed people...
I am diagnosed bipolar, ADD, somewhat depressed and anxiety ridden... My question is this.........I never get depressed to the point where I have suicidal ideation and never had.......so I don't swing to that deep depression side of bipolar.....but I do become disenchanted with life in general from time to time....and I do have my crazy manic stuff going on ......so is that the other side of the mania really considered a depression?:confused:

Interesting thread. I've recently been re diagnosed as bipolar. I have, to my knowledge been a depressive most of my life, and it was not until this last year that was formally diagnosed with ADD...However, after exploring and searching into my past and present, the Pdoc opted to take me off Stratera and try some mood stabilizer on me... If I were to have to swear to anything, I would have to say that my main problems have been add, ptsd, and depression, so the diagnosis of bipolar kind of took me by surprise. After reading a bit into it, I see that my angry outbursts, and periods of elation do closely resemble the patterns of mania, which were diagnosed in the past as borderline personality disorder...