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I have bipolar disorder and been in treatment (therapy & meds) over 10 years [54 - female]. with only five yr. younger brother Brad. He is my "memory" since I often can't remember pieces of my life, not only from childhood, but less so too. We both understand bipolar symptoms, but once I told him I felt as I had two personalities since I can be extremely confrontational person (esp. with authority figures & even police: cussing, stealing, lying, cheating, sexually promiscuousness, and say things to hurt other's feelings. When that is not happening, I am peace-loving, nature-loving, modest, shy, reclusive but likable person. He surprise me by laughing hard as he always new this. He said, "I named the mean one Judy when I was about 6." He never said a word about it until now we are adults. Don't feel I miss time but have trouble gauging time. Yes, abused sexually by both parents (not at same time). Dad away in military and Mom was neglectful, physically & verbally abusive, and gave me "forced naps" sent to my room alone when he was gone. He was a bath-time abuser (no penetration) - soap him up, play with me. She insisted I had pimples between my thighs that I had to lay still to be pinched hard to fix (I don't know what else). I have a professionally tested IQ of 160, recently got a Bachelor's degree, and have GPA around 3.5 and higher, but have little common sense: difficulty with money management and getting involved with lost puppy loser men. I can't cope with guilt generated by bad actions, I withdraw into a fetal position and stare at nothing for 8-10 hours sometimes if I reminisce too much on the past - which I am prone to do. Have a choir of voices in my head that repeat whatever I hear or even read. Ear tests show I have the hearing of a 3 year old child. Been told the voices are psychologicall atypical and neurologically should not happen. This leads to high degree of stress it sometime impossible to manage. I have to fight to concentrate on studies. Am I beyond bipolar here? In youth I had hallucinations of doom, in adulhood vivid visions when not in REM, and always extremely terrorizing dreams all my life. My therapist and just "talk" now. Little behavioral psych, just free-association type "visiting." See psychiatrist for meds every 3 mos.back online now!
Optional Information: Gender: Female Age: 54 Already Tried: Now take seroquel 100mg night, adderall TR 5 mg day, lamotrogin, pristiq, neurontin, and alprozam. None of these are high-dose and recently started fluxor for OCD behavior. It works on the latter but makes me lazy and depressed so probably not continue it.
Thank you for trusting JustAnswer with your important question.Based on what you describe above, I would recommend that you see a psychologist who specializes in dissociation and trauma for an evaluation. It is possible to have both dissociative symptoms in addition to Bipolar Disorder, but dissociation and trauma will not resolve with medication alone. You may benefit from trauma-focused therapy, specific therapy tools like EMDR, and more focused-therapy to deal with learning new coping skills instead of always using dissociation.For more information, and help finding skilled professionals in your area, visit:http://www.isst-d.org/find-a-therapist/disclaimer-find-therapist.htmhttp://www.sidran.org/sub.cfm?sectionID=5Best wishes,Selah
Is disociation a schizophrenic symptom? or is it a "syndrome" of its own? I have been diagnosed with PTSD too. I have been wondering why 10 years of therapy and medications have not helped me too much except with the hyper-manic episodes and with the depression that have improved in time on medications.
Dissociation is a normal coping skills that we all use. Severe or frequent dissociation can become an unhealthy coping mechanism that can happen with any trauma history and with many different diagnoses (such as Bipolar or Depression). A dissociation disorder, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder, is the most severe manifestation of this symptom. It can include hearing voices that seem to be parts of your internal mind, feeling like you have more than one personality, experiencing gaps in memory that are greater than normal forgetfulness, and almost everyone with DID has a history of childhood sexual abuse. It is different from Schizophrenia, which may include hearing voices, but these voices are usually felt to be outside of their own body or not a natural part of their brain/person/identity. Selah
Experience: Licensed Professional Counselor; over 13+ yrs exp working with adults, teens, & families/couples.