Is it bipolar or not
Signs and symptoms of depression (or a depressive episode) include:
* Lasting sad, anxious, or empty mood
* Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
* Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
* Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, including sex
* Decreased energy, a feeling of fatigue or of being "slowed down"
* Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
* Restlessness or irritability
* Sleeping too much, or can't sleep
* Change in appetite and/or unintended weight loss or gain
* Chronic pain or other persistent bodily symptoms that are not caused by physical illness or injury
* Thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide attempts
A depressive episode is diagnosed if five or more of these symptoms last most of the day, nearly every day, for a period of 2 weeks or longer.
When four or more episodes of illness occur within a 12-month period, a person is said to have rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. Some people experience multiple episodes within a single week, or even within a single day. Rapid cycling tends to develop later in the course of illness and is more common among women than among men.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/bipolar...
My father had bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. I'm not an expert or anything, but bipolar is mostly depression and then mania. There are some different personality traits, but they are closely related to the traits from the borderline personality disorder. And anger or rage is more likely to be from that. There is a test that you can take online. I took it recently and it seemed to be pretty accurate. I think I googled online borderline personality disorder test, so I would think you coud do the same with bipolar. Some things my dad did was he was very manipulative, he lied a lot for no reason, he abused prescription pain pills, he had a Jekkyl and Hyde personality, he could never be wrong, he would have long periods of severe depression, anxiety attacks, he was paranoid, and he could be very abusive. Most or all of those were because of the bipolar disorder. Of course that was my father and everybody is different. Your boyfriend needs to see a psychiatrist, however, I'm just guessing that he doesn't want to see one. That would be another symptom-complete denial that anything is wrong with him and that you are the one with the problem. I hope I helped some. There are some good books on the disorder and how to handle someone who has it on Amazon.com if you need more information. By the way, until your boyfriend gets help, I would distance yourself from him if you can, because you're going to get hurt pretty bad if you haven't already. It is hard on you physically, emotionally, mentally, and verbal abuse is still very damaging. More so than physically I think, so please be careful. I know you love him, but you have to take care of yourself too and you don't want to enable him to continue with his behavior. Good luck and God bless. If you ever need to talk to someone, you can email me. :)