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Bipolar Disorder Community

Hypersensitive, Overwhelmed

Hey all, I'm new to the community and thought I might ask this here, see if anyone has...

Posted by afchavez

Hey all, I'm new to the community and thought I might ask this here, see if anyone has answers.

I'm eighteen years old, and according to my mother my bipolar disorder has been a problem for me since I was a small child, but my memory is very dissociative and spotty, so I couldn't really say. To me it feels like it's only started to get bad in the late stages of puberty, age sixteen onward and so.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask about is my occasional episodes of hypersensitivity to stimuli - is this caused by bipolar disorder? I can't be certain, because I might still have lingering bits of PTSD cropping up after a trauma I went through at age twelve. I thought all the therapy and soul-searching had helped me process that crap, but I'm no doctor, so I can't tell.

This doesn't happen to me often as long as I stay on my meds. I'm all about multi-tasking; I get restless watching television if I don't have something to write or draw at the same time, and I always have the radio on when I'm driving, etc. It takes a few tasks to fill up my head the right way on a normal day, but when I get into these phases I CANNOT focus on more than one thing at a time. If I'm really into the TV while I'm like this, I won't even hear someone talking to me unless they raise their voice, and then I freak out because of the loud noise. The more there is going on around me, the more wired I get, and when I finally break and yell at everyone to stop I stutter and repeat phrases.

Sleeping helps, but I'm not always in a situation where I can sleep it off. When I'm at school I just have to run to a bathroom or corner and do breathing exercises for half an hour. If it goes on long enough without my being able to get away I may even get dry heaves when I'm finally alone. This usually doesn't last more than a day - music and isolation helps a lot - but while it's going on it's really inconvenient and uncomfortable.

So my question is this; is this cause by my bipolar? My manic stages are usually marked by irritability and aggression, and I've always been more depressive than manic anyway, so I'm not sure what to make of this. Anyone with a little more life experience know what I'm talking about?View Thread

Posted byafchavez

1 Reply | Reply | Watch This DiscussionReport This| Share this:Hypersensitive, Overwhelmed Hey all, I'm new to the community and thought I might ask this here, see if anyone has...

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