how to know if you have bipolar disorder (or how i knew)

Hello, my name’s Polyanna and with this channel I want to raise awareness around bipolar disorder, which I was diagnosed with in August 2018. Whilst there is a lot of content about bipolar disorder on the internet, specifically on youtube, you can only get diagnosed with bipolar disorder by a certified mental health specialist - the bipolar symptoms mentioned in many videos aren’t as unambiguous as they make them sound to be and if you really have bipolar disorder, you will need to get in touch with a mental health specialist, sooner or later, anyways. Personally, I think this topic needs clearing up a lot, as I see a lot of people throwing around the word “bipolar”, especially when talking about a person they don’t really like.

This video will be divided in two sections: Sometimes it’s really difficult to know if what you have been experiencing is just a phase or if it’s something more serious, that needs treatment. In the first part, I will explain to you how to know when to get professional help. In the second part I will talk about my story getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder. As I have been diagnosed in Australia, the procedure I went through might be entirely different from the one in your country, so please keep that in mind.

It’s hard to take a step away from our thoughts and realise how unhealthy they truly are, which is why, I chose three pointers that are both pertinent, but also easy to observe: If your friends openly tell you they worry about you, if you notice a huge change in your appetite or sleeping pattern, you should consider seeking professional help.

I got diagnosed with bipolar (II) disorder whilst I was on exchange. I decided to seek the help of a university counsellor, because at that point, I couldn’t deal with my issues on my own anymore. After several sessions, the counsellor told me she thinks I might have a mood disorder, which is why I went to see a psychiatrist. Whilst waiting for an appointment with an psychiatrist, I already started to track my mood, which later on, helped diagnosing me with bipolar disorder.

I tracked my mood using the Daily Mood Swing Graph by the Blackdog Institute:


However, there is also this great app called Youper, that helps you track your mood by choosing from a large set of emotions, rather than picking whether you feel depressed, (hypo)manic or normal.

With time you will get better at noticing recognising each episode, but in the beginning a graph like the Daily Mood Swing Graph might not be very intuitive.

In Australia, in order to see a psychiatrist, you will need to get a referral from your GP. My GP let me fill out the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) - positive screen - and ran blood tests, to make sure my mood swings weren’t due to a lack of Vitamin D. When I finally got to see the psychiatrist, she looked at the blood test results, my mood graphs and asked me about my family history - and that’s how I got diagnosed.

If you yourself have trouble accessing standard mental health services, here are some links, that might be helpful:

AUSTRALIAN MENTAL HEALTH ORGANISATIONS AND HOTLINES:

EMERGENCIES:
or by phone 13 11 14
Mental Health Line by phone 1800 011 511

CONSULTATIONS:



FRENCH MENTAL HEALTH ORGANISATIONS AND HOTLINES:

EMERGENCIES
www.suicide-ecoute.fr or by phone 01 45 39 40 00
www.sos-suicide-phenix.org.

CONSULTATIONS (the site will depend on where you’re staying at)
Centre Médico - Psychologique
Bureau d’aide psychologique universitaire

Last but not least, in case you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via mail: askpolyanna@gmail.com

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