I wish I could answer that one for sure. I was promoted to BP1 not that long ago, but I am not really totally sure why.

I guess so. I don't know for sure. I thought that I had some form of psychosis. I still think that too. I've told my doctor about it, but he just refers to it as "negative self-talk" wtf?!

It wasn't even a necessarily proufound sort of psychosis. I wasn't a megalomaniac claiming to be president or God. I just felt like I had bugs crawling all over me and I was aware that I really didn't have bugs all over me...I just felt them.

Weird, to me at least.

I was diagnosed as BP2 at first also. But the only reason why is because I was in the middle of a depression. And of course if you are depressed they are just going to think your mostly on the depressive side. But I didnt let them know all the psychosis that I was experiencing and they didnt take into consideration that I had a 5 years gap of between my episodes.

I had to change doctors later on and the second one got it right that time. The psychosis and depression had subsided and I was able to think more clearly and tell them more things about the things that had happened. And then they came up with BP1. And thats how I got my diagnoses

Ya cant be bp2 with any history of psychosis, so I guess that is all it takes, yeh. Also... if your hypomania last longer, theyll call it mania. That makes you bp2 aswell. I think diagnostic criteria used to be 4 days for hypo, 7 for mania.. maybe i got it wrong tho. Probably.

sorry.. I meant bp1 after the hypo/mania comment.

I think what it takes is a period of psychosis of more than 7 days..I've never quite figured out if that means you were BP2 and you take meds you might actually be secretly BP1 inside but the meds have stopped it..

but anyway, I think that is the definition..and yes, it's one episode.

"promoted" LOL, you made my day!!

They dont really seem to do bp1 bp2 here in the UK..least not to most I know.

Actually no- a 'little bit of psychosis' does not BP1 make...a 'little bit of psychosis' can be a feature of psychotic depression, borderline..a bunch of things.

it's more mania that lends to bp1 dx.

& anyone who has truly experienced manic psychosis would have a hard time calling it a "little bit"

When its psychosis...

You will KNOW its psychosis... your brain will explode and your entire worldview will change... its pretty black and white.

If you are questioning whether or not you have been psychotic, you probably haven't been. Which is very fortunate for you.

i agree with the both of you... lou and tree. If your psychotic you will know. You no longer control your mind it controls you. It goes haywire and it creates a world of its own. It very hard to avoid

Welcome to the club Hanna. Was dx'd BP1 right out of the gate.

I'm BP 1, but I have BP 2 tendencies the way it was explained to me is that once you have psychosis and are dx with 1, even if you never have psychosis again, you still can't go back to 2...

So welcome to the really crazy bunch...