Diagnosis

So, over the past couple months, while my symptoms have been more severe, I often have wondered about my diagnosis. Do these new symptoms mean my diagnosis will change? Do I have something more debilitating? What is this disease? What is wrong with me? I've spent some time today thinking about these questions.

First of all, a little bit of detail about my meds.

1. Antidepressant: I take a medication that is used to treat depression, anxiety, panic disorders, social phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, PTSD, and the depressive features of bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. It is in the class of drugs known as SSRI's, a common class of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications.

2. Mood stabilizer: This medication is used to treat epilepsy and other seizure disorders, migraines, and to stabilize moods in depression, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. It is actually classified as an anticonvulsant, and was originally developed to treat seizure disorders, and its mood stabilizing properties were discovered later. Many anticonvulsant  medications also stabilize mood, actually.

3. Antipsychotic: the particular medication I use as an antipsychotic is used for psychotic episodes in depression, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. It is also used to help those with autism or dementia better control irritability, aggression and/or violent outbursts. It is considered an "atypical antipsychotic", one class of antipsychotic medications, the other being "typical antipsychotics".

4. ADHD (stimulant): I use a psychostimulant medication to treat and manage my attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Treatment of ADD and ADHD is the primary use of this medication, although it can be prescribed for weight loss, narcolepsy, or treatment-resistant depressive features in depression or bipolar disorder

5. ADHD (non-stimulant): I take a medication that is considered an "NRI", a class of drugs used to treat a wide range of psychiatric disorders. The drug I am prescribed is used to treat ADHD, anxiety, depression, smoking cessation, eating disorders, and bedwetting - among other uses. I am using it in combination with a psychostimulant because on their own, neither ADHD medication is enough, and each has side effects I don't like. Together, they work much more effectively and the side effects seem to cancel each other out.

Why did I go into all this detail about my meds? Because each and every one of them is used in the treatment of a wide range of medical and psychiatric conditions. They are effective for more than one diagnosis.

So what does this mean for me? Today, I decided that it doesn't matter. I have an illness, and the medications I am using are effective at treating my  symptoms, and help me better manage flare-ups. What does it matter what the name of my illness is? It very well could be something other than Bipolar Disorder type 2. It could be type 1, it could be schizoaffective disorder, it could be something else entirely. Maybe I have an anxiety disorder, or a panic disorder. Maybe some of my intrusive thoughts are from a Disorder on the OCD spectrum. Does it really matter? The meds I am taking? They work. They are used for many things, and whatever you want to call my illness, this treatment works.