Hello all!
I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience, or if anyone is knowledgeable enough to push me in the right direction.
My situation is a bit complex, so bear with me please!
I'm currently in the military and have been diagnosed with both PTSD and Bipolar II, but I'm nor convinced with the Bipolar 2 diagnosis and feel it might be a misdiagnosis.
From teenhood onwards, I was always an energetic person. I would have periods of high energy, and periods of average energy? By periods of high energy, I mean I always had to do things: I did sports, travel, and other activities. But sometimes I would also go out and party, drink, or pick up women. While these behaviors were fairly intense, friends, family and coworkers never described them as excessive, in fact, none of them ever commented on it being out of the ordinary. In 2001 and 2002 I took the MMPI-2 exam for work: I passed both times without difficulty, and I was being honest...I did not try to deceive or "beat" the test.
Around 2003, I had an incident which led me to PTSD. For about a month or two afterwards, my drinking increased dramatically and I felt depressed, blaming myself for the incident and the such. I would avoid contact with friends and family. Work never suffered, and no one suspected a thing. Eventually, I realized that things were going downhill so I cut back on the drinking, moved into a new home, and started seeing friends and family again. Things got a lot better, and for the most part things went back as they had been.
However, once in a while when I wasn't busy doing something, I would think about the incident and it would bother me. Also, movies with certain cues would make me cry. For those two reasons I decided to go see the doctors, fine tune things a little. I figured I'd go talk to a shrink for a while and then everything would be alright.
Within a month, they had diagnosed me with Bipolar and PTSD. They put me on around 300mg of Seroquel, which made me drowsy and sleepy, and gave me extremely vivid dreams.
During this period, I started doubting the Bipolar diagnosis. I have 2 family members diagnosed with Bipolar, and I don't recognize myself in them at all. I've asked friends, family, and coworkers candidly if they thought I was bipolar, and all of them were surprised because they didn't see any of this in me. Also, I've been very successful in life, with no work impairment whatsoever: university degree with high grades, very high ratings at an extremely stressful job, good salary, NEVER a day off work.
Taking the Seroquel had made me drowsy and tired, I tended to sleep less and people around me noticed. When my dose finally made it to 300mg, I got drowsy and it became hard to concentrate. I went to see the doctors: they said I was in a deep depression, but nevertheless changed Seroquel for Lamotrigine. Within a week i was back to normal and all the tiredness and drowsiness was gone. I suspect the Seroquel made me tired and drowsy, not the supposed depression.
I've been on Lamictal for several months now, and I'm still unconvinced of my Bipolar diagnosis. The symptoms they refer to as hypomania have been present since I was a teen, but have never caused any problems and I've never had difficulty doing a high stress difficult job. I also passed the MMPI-2 with flying colors while having those same supposed symptoms.
I went to the doctors because I cried during some movies and because once in a while I thought of a disturbing event. I came out of it with PTSD and Bipolar diagnosis.
I'm convinced I have PTSD, but not sure about Bipolar. Has anyone here had issues with misdiagnosis? Is it possible to honestly succeed the MMPI-2 while being Bipolar? Could Seroquel sideffects be mistaken for depression?
Any help or input would be appreciated!
Thanks.
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