Expert: Libby Bonner - 7/22/2009

Question
Dear Libby, I am 64 years of age and I have had severe OCD since a teenager.  I have suffered with clinical depression for most of my life also and was addicted to Benzodiazepine drugs for 34 years courtesy of my GP Doctor. I have been told by several doctors over the years that I am a Manic Depressive but have never been given any treatment for it as I am on a cocktail of drugs daily. I experience highs and lows at the drop of a hat, I buy things from the internet when I am feeling low which helps to lift me (I rarely open the packages), I suffer periods of feeling very hot and sweaty for no reason. Can you please tell me if you think I may be Bipolar? Thank you, Michael

Answer
Too many puzzles here for me to be helpful.

I don't know the reason/s you are given a cocktail of drugs daily, nor what they are -- not why it suits you to take them, since you feel so negatively about the benzos....  Also don't know how long this particular mix of drugs has been prescribed.

I don't know whether you have been able to work, been able to sustain relationships.

Don't know why you've been given no treatment for BP, if indeed you haven't, since you see docs regularly and are under their care, apparently.  Could you be mistaken, and the cocktail includes meds for BP??

Do the docs know about your moods swings, about the spending??

Hot and sweaty - no idea.  Drug side effects??  Have you reported it in case it is a symptom of some medical illness??

Have you undertaken any info-gathering about bipolar?  Check online and perhaps you will have a better idea about whether you are bipolar.  BUT I think the "cocktail of drugs" would preclude anyone making a correct diagnosis.

My own guess?  That your cocktail includes BP meds.  Ask your doctor.  
Write again if I can help.