Posted by T_R_D on April 26, 2004, at 13:19:58
In reply to Anyone Wanna Play P'doc??, posted by Vanillintabaktöne on April 25, 2004, at 13:08:02
I couldn't wait to get in on this one! Of course I'm no pdoc but my opinion might help here as I suffer form some of what you are talking about.
A lot of people play a "one or the other" diagnosis game but disorders cna be comorbid and/or mask each other. You sound comorbid ADD/bipolar to me. I know when untreated I can get very ADD and also cycle (my formal diagnosis is BPII but I know enough about ADD and my own traits that it's easily there too.)
The difficult aspect of the whole thing is that bipolar and ADD can look so much like each other it's hard to tell.
One of the things that said ADD to me were the sudden tiredness after mental exertion. It can happen in reverse too (i.e. I have gotten tired before studying for exams.)
The late afternoon/evening pick me up is a phenomenon called "sundowning." It's most often reported with Alzheimer's patients but I am also a "sundowner" as my (hypo)manic cycles could/would tend to occur at that time of day. I have also been known to get sleepy around that time of afternoon too (just after lunch and it isn't always to do with a full tummy either!) The key to the whole thing--people suspect--is the whole circadian rhythm thing. It's a theory anyway. Serotonin is also linked with sleep etc...hence the problem with insomnia/somnolence with depression, yadda, yadda, yadda...
So what do you think?
Karen
poster:T_R_D
thread:339859
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040423/msgs/340224.html