K
keith74
Well-known member
Hello all,
My wife has a diagnosis of classic bipolar 1. However, I'm trying to figure out what her sister has. We are pretty sure she has some mental illness. My wife thinks she is bipolar also, but she doesn't fully fit the usual criteria. She has had multiple episodes which fall into the classic manic criteria (both euphoric and dysphoric) and also mixed mania. But she has never really had what I would consider a depressive episode. The closest would be her mixed manic episodes where she would have moments of extreme emotional anxiety and sadness sprinkled in with her intense mania. At first, my wife and I dismissed the first two big episodes as postpartum psychosis since they happened after each of her kids were born. But then she had another huge episode in 2019 which was mostly due to overwork and work stress. Hence we can't blame that one on postpartum. When she comes down from these manic episodes, there is a time of melancholy as she reflects on what happens. But it is brief and then she wants to move on from it like it never happened. She never enters any kind of real depression. Her baseline is very emotional/social/friendly but a bit narcissistic and with a bit of a temper. In her manic episodes, this gets amplified 1000x. When doing some research, I found a bit of information about "unipolar mania" which seems to fit the bill. But the data on it is minimal as it is not commonly diagnosed. Just wondering if my sister-in-law does indeed get unipolar mania or if it could be something else. She is in denial that she has any real mental issues other than lack of "anger management" and some ptsd from past trauma. Even hinting that she may have a mental illness will set her off so she definitely will not go to a psychiatrist for a proper evaluation.
My wife has a diagnosis of classic bipolar 1. However, I'm trying to figure out what her sister has. We are pretty sure she has some mental illness. My wife thinks she is bipolar also, but she doesn't fully fit the usual criteria. She has had multiple episodes which fall into the classic manic criteria (both euphoric and dysphoric) and also mixed mania. But she has never really had what I would consider a depressive episode. The closest would be her mixed manic episodes where she would have moments of extreme emotional anxiety and sadness sprinkled in with her intense mania. At first, my wife and I dismissed the first two big episodes as postpartum psychosis since they happened after each of her kids were born. But then she had another huge episode in 2019 which was mostly due to overwork and work stress. Hence we can't blame that one on postpartum. When she comes down from these manic episodes, there is a time of melancholy as she reflects on what happens. But it is brief and then she wants to move on from it like it never happened. She never enters any kind of real depression. Her baseline is very emotional/social/friendly but a bit narcissistic and with a bit of a temper. In her manic episodes, this gets amplified 1000x. When doing some research, I found a bit of information about "unipolar mania" which seems to fit the bill. But the data on it is minimal as it is not commonly diagnosed. Just wondering if my sister-in-law does indeed get unipolar mania or if it could be something else. She is in denial that she has any real mental issues other than lack of "anger management" and some ptsd from past trauma. Even hinting that she may have a mental illness will set her off so she definitely will not go to a psychiatrist for a proper evaluation.