Question:
I have read and heard people say *test for Bipolar*. Is there such a
test? Can one really tell if one is Unipolar vs Bipolar if one has
never had a full on manic episode with psychotic features? I thought
all you could really do was get a good history from someone and try to
fit his descriptions of his life into a DSM-IV category.
Answer:
All the assertions about any kind of physiological tests for bipolar are
fallacies. Period.
At this point, bipolar is only diagnosed holistically, against a set of
given symptoms. I suggest that you talk to a psychiatrist, and read a list
of symptoms, and try and ask yourself, do you really have those? Are they
distinct enough to be sure you didn't "make them up?" By "making up"
symptoms I mean mind's attempts to conform to a certain idea, i.e. if you
"look" for bipolar, you will no longer consider your symptoms objectively,
but only from the "side" of the bipolar. Know what I mean?
If you don't have highly manic episodes with psychotic features (I think
it's also called "hypomania"), this doesn't mean you don't have bipolar. You
could have it. Or you could have something else. It's little details that
matter; there are a million criteria to consider before you can say "this
describes me nearly perfectly", and your pdoc diagnoses you with bipolar. The closest thing to a test psychiatry has for bipolar disorder is
doing "mood charts." Ask your psychiatrist about this. You can graph
out your mood over a specific time period and see if there is much in
the way of mood swings, how you feel (good/bad?), etc. Psychiatry doesnt have any medical tests like your thinking of. They
should have something like that, but they dont. Diagnosing bipolar
disorder can be tough a lot of times and the crude diagnosing methods
that are used certainly are nothing to brag about.
