Been diagnosed with Bipolar and everything else. I am new and have a question

[Beanjeanie]

Hello I am new and currently becoming very ill. been DX'd with everything since age 14 and now i am age 35. Problem is that i don't know after all these yrs what is truly wrong with me except that I cycle hourly..... in fact minute by minute. I may want to watch a movie one minute and then put it on the the feeling has passed. So, many psychiatrists and people wonder is it Bipolar because maybe I don't go as high in a manic state as some do. But I am wondering if having had hepititas C for almost 20 yrs may played a role in my not becoming as manicly high as some do. You see... the major symptom of hep C is severe fatigue. So is it possible i still have Bipolar but Hep c has kept my enrgy level low. Cause my head races so fast and I get very psychotic but in a lethargic way.

[paula]

Hi Beanjeanie & welcome to our Community!

Hello I am new and currently becoming very ill. been DX'd with everything since age 14 and now i am age 35. Problem is that i don't know after all these yrs what is truly wrong with me except that I cycle hourly..... in fact minute by minute. I may want to watch a movie one minute and then put it on the the feeling has passed. So, many psychiatrists and people wonder is it Bipolar because maybe I don't go as high in a manic state as some do. But I am wondering if having had hepititas C for almost 20 yrs may played a role in my not becoming as manicly high as some do. You see... the major symptom of hep C is severe fatigue. So is it possible i still have Bipolar but Hep c has kept my enrgy level low. Cause my head races so fast and I get very psychotic but in a lethargic way.

Are you going through the Menopause by any chance? It can affect some women when they are going through the menopause, to have difficulty trying to remember things?

Hepatitis C is quite an unusual disease, because it's possible to have without even knowing you do. It can take years before any obvious symptoms appear. And yet in other people, symptoms become obvious within six to eight months. For people with acute Hepatitis C, dark urine, nausea and overwhelming tiredness are the first symptoms to usually appear. Around twenty five percent of people who suffer from acute Hepatitis C will recover once they've received treatment. The other seventy five percent, however, will end up with a permanent condition known as chronic Hepatitis C.

One of the most difficult aspects of chronic Hepatitis C is that no type people seem to experience the same progression of the condition. Many people have this type of infection without suffering any ill effects at all. It can remain inactive in their system for years, often as many as ten years, before any symptoms begin to surface. No obvious signs of liver damage will occur when the disease is dormant. It's possible the sufferer will only discover he or she has Hepatitis C when blood work is done for some entirely different reason.

Others, however, have unmistakable symptoms. They often feel tired all the time, find the idea of food unappetizing and suffer from diarrhea. Often their urine is far too dark and yet their stools are very light. The patient often has a low-grade fever on an ongoing basis. Other possible symptoms include:

# Nausea

# Tenderness in the upper body

# Stomach pains

# Yellowish tint in the eyes and/or skin, which signifies jaundice

Someone suffering from these sorts of symptoms may have liver enzymes that are twenty times higher than the normal levels.

Long term, one of the most debilitating results of chronic Hepatitis C is liver damage, usually in the form of cirrhosis of the liver. This disease scars the liver irreparably, and normal liver function is affected. However this complication takes time to develop, often as long as ten or twenty years from when the Hepatitis C was contracted. Around five percent of these patients do develop liver cancer, but this may take anywhere from twenty to forty years. It's quite common for people with cirrhosis of the liver to develop liver cancer, with the time frame usually being around seventeen years.

Hepatitis C is responsible for most of the liver transplants conducted each year. Around one thousand live transplants a year are conducted for this reason in the United States. It also causes around ten thousand deaths every year. Research has been undertaken for many years, but at this time there is still no cure for Hepatitis C, or an effective vaccine. One of the big problems with Hepatitis C is that the infection regularly mutates, so it's impossible for any one vaccine to keep up with it. Prevention is about the only way to avoid contracting the Hepatitis C virus.

I have printed this information here, to give other people, like myself, a better description on Hepatitis c.

I would suggest that you see your Doctor and explain, what you have told us here on this site, to him.

I'm afraid that I cannot help you regarding your question, as I am not a qualified doctor, & neither is anyone else here on this site, except Allan & Mark, & somehow, I don't think this is their subject, what they are qualified in either?

But we are all here to listen, & support when needed! Don't ever feel alone! We are all a friendly bunch on here, Or I like to think so...

[Beanjeanie]

I want to clarify that perhaps doctors are not thinking about my hep C even thought they know i have it. I rapid cycle everyday and I have svere psychoyic helath symptoms even diagnosis 2 times of paranoid scizophrenia. And PTSD and Bipolar and....... and....... I am not sure you follow me here if I trusted doctors I would go talk to my doctor who doesn't know what the heck is wrong with me. Every diangoses there is i have had depending on the doctor. I feel like this is futile but thanks fo rtryong.

[Mark]

Paula is correct that knowledge of HepC is out of my league. Sorry!

FYI: If you are bipolarish, it doesn't have to be the full on condition with actual mania. the full condition is called Bipolar I and that consists of full on depression and full on mania. But there is also Bipolar II which has full on depression but only a partial mania called hypomania (hypo means "under"). Then there is a condition called Cyclothymia which is a sort of low level altenation between mania and depression where full criteria and intensity of both are not met but you're going in that direction

Rapid cycling forms of bipolar are only recently being recognized, and they are troubling to get a grip on. Some people think they look like bipolar conditions, while others tend to diagnose them as personality disorders (e.g., becuase mood instability is involved in both). See my essay on the subject "Disentangling Rapid-Cycling Bipolar From Borderline"

It would be nice if you could just get a definitive diagnosis the first time, wouldn't it? This process of going for years and not being sure what hte real issues are is very difficult.

[nancyannee]

Hi beanjeanie,

I have been diagnosed with ultra rapid cycling bipolar II with psychosis....I don't have the high highs...just irritability, with major depression, and some nasty psychotic symptoms that I have learned to live with (barely) without taking meds. I hope you have found some relief and things get better for you in the future....

nancy:)