AS and bipolar or just AS?

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Hi everyone,

I'm sure this topic has been covered already so my apologies...I'm suffering from chronic fatigue & don't have a lot of energy for reading.

I've been diagnosed with BD 2 and now suspect I have AS (just about to have diagnostic assessment).
Does it sometimes happen that people have been wrongly diagnosed with bipolar disorder
when in fact they have Asperger's? Or is it usually a comorbid thing?
How do you tell whether you have 'just' Asperger's or both?

Thanks, Zel.

From what I have read, key points to consider for AS might be a lack of desire for social contact, and for bipolar, uncontrolled cycling of mood, including extreme highs, which are not associated with AS alone, and deep depression, which is associated with AS.

I think misdiagnosis is probably fairly common.

Being misdiagnosed and given incorrect medication can have severe negative effects, so try to be certain that you are diagnosed by a psychologist who has as much information about you as possible.

There are a couple of threads discussing AS and bipolar here:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt146091.html
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt154617.html

I am feeling fatigued myself, sorry I can't be more helpful.

I agree with what Orr said, and that sums it up for me. ^

I highly doubt Aspergers is often misdiagnosed as Bipolar, they are night a day, not even on the same spectrum, one is a mood disorder, the other is an autistic disorder, I don't see the connection.

But you can have both, easilly.

Wow... Same here, on all counts. In my case, I have a very obvious pattern of manic and depressive phases, so I have no doubt that the bipolar diagnosis is correct. Whether I have AS, I hope to find out soon (and I strongly suspect I do - otherwise I wouldn't be here, or looking into this!)

Anyway just wanted to say you're not alone, and good luck with the assessment process

Aspies sometimes have mood problems related to AS(like meltdowns, anxiety, depression from life problems of being an Aspie in an NT word) & sometimes psychs only look at or see a few symptoms & assume that's the problem instead of realizing they could be part of a bigger issue. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by my GP after having a mental breakdown due to lots of problems I had with life due to my AS. Psychs changed bipolar to Schizoid Personality, Borderline Personality, depression & about 10 other diagnoses because they didn't believe I had Aspergers even thou I meet all the DSM criteria & fit most of the Aspie stereotypes & have most all the same issues & problems they have. Psychs/docs can be quacks who are very quick to form opinions & close off the possibility that they could be wrong

They diagnosed you with only those symptoms? I had paranoia and I think one of the delusions as some of my symptoms and they diagnosed me with OCD. All is different now though.

And even if you don't have an emotional disregulation - with ASD, you can be unemotional and have some sort of social dysfunction - you could still be interpreted as having an emotional problem and be diagnosed with a mood disorder or a mental disorder. I think listening to the patient's narrative is very important in order to get to the right diagnosis.

Maybe there's a term for this and I just haven't learned it yet, being relatively new to the world of Asperger's (recently self-diagnosed). But I think there's kind of an aspie-specific version of bipolar syndrome or at least something similar based on the conflicts involved in being an aspie in an NT world.

Before I realized I was on the spectrum, I used to go back and forth between periods of being very introverted, then making a few friends and trying to become more social. Then something about my behavior would prompt NT bullying, so I would go back to being quiet and unobtrusive. The desire for human contact would lure me back into the social world and I would meet people who mistook my quietness for submissiveness. They would try to use/manipulate/dominate me so I would protest which would result in me being ostracized. Then I would go back to being quiet to avoid drawing the attention of bullies. Sometimes when I was in a more public/social phase, the trigger would be that I would speak up trying to defend someone else who was being bullied, but it was always some way in which I didn't get the rules of the NT world that caused a blow-up and sent me back to being a hermit.