That's been my experience. For decades, I was diagnosed with depression. Eventually, I was prescribed an SSRI. And that became a disaster, over the course of a few years.
But then I saw a psychiatrist who inquired about my use of psychoactive drugs. And based on my love of stimulants, he diagnosed me as having bipolar disorder, manifesting primarily as depression. And so he prescribed modafinil, with lamotrigine to reduce the risk of mania.
So I wonder if bipolar disorder is actually relatively common. I mean, I was self medicating primarily with caffeine, and for many years used nicotine to take the edge off. Maybe that's fundamentally why coffee, tea, etc are so popular.
You probably know this, but for the benefit of other readers, bipolar disorder masquerading as major depression until flushed out into mania by SSRIs is a common (and dangerous) enough misdiagnosis that psychiatrists avoid prescribing SSRIs for depression until they're confident that enough time has passed that they're not dealing with bipolar disorder. It's basically the go to example of one disorder being mistaken for another.
There's a milder form of bipolar disorder called cyclothymia that is rarely diagnosed unless a patient seeks psychiatric care for a different reason. Estimates suggest it's fairly common, potentially up to 1% of the population.
Interesting that you were diagnosed with bipolar, was the possibility of ADHD discussed, and if it was, how did they determine that it was bipolar and not ADHD?
I was diagnosed with ADHD, with the possibility of bipolar, and also have a sweet tooth for stimulants, both legal and not (I'm basically fuelled on caffeine, nicotine, and amphetamines).
I've also never heard of modafinil being prescribed as a treatment for bipolar disorder either, do you happen to have any resources on this?
Lamotrigine has been a life saver for me! Way more effective than snri, ssri for me at least. I wish more people knew about it. Bonus it's like 5 cents a pill unlike so many patented depression meds
But then I saw a psychiatrist who inquired about my use of psychoactive drugs. And based on my love of stimulants, he diagnosed me as having bipolar disorder, manifesting primarily as depression. And so he prescribed modafinil, with lamotrigine to reduce the risk of mania.
So I wonder if bipolar disorder is actually relatively common. I mean, I was self medicating primarily with caffeine, and for many years used nicotine to take the edge off. Maybe that's fundamentally why coffee, tea, etc are so popular.
Edit: typo