Is he bipolar? Thyroid problem??

[banditbraith]

Ok so my boyfriend of two years, when I first met him he had the average teenage problems, this past few months he's been slowly getting worse...went to a psychiatrist who put him on depresison medicine.

well....every 3 weeks since then he's been on a new depression medicine, and nothing seems to be working for him, he researched all sorts of vitamin defficiencies he could have, none of those vitamins are helping.

He has yet to go through any hard tests or blood tests....but I'm wondering....could he be bipolar/have a thyroid issue?



His symtoms are...

seemingly fluxuating and random irritability.

Frequent manic depressive states.

Headrushes

Stomach aches

Muscle tensions.

Anger issues.

Lack of energy, all the time.

Caffiene doesn't affect him at all.

Energy pills/drinks/substitutes don't work on him.

and recently, mainly today....He said that his emotional attachment to nearly everything is gone, he doesn't care about his friends, family, anything...has a loss on interest in everything he loves, and has no drive/desire to do anything.

Right now he cares about nothing, including me, and he's only clinging onto me because he says he knows he loves me...

Do you think he might be bipolar or have a thyroid problem? it's the only way I can think that depression medicine just wouldn't work on him...

I'm scared...because he's near suicidal and hates his family so much that I saw that he had burnt a cross into his wrist.

[moonie91]

He should get a full blood workup to check for thryroid.  It's a simple blood test.  If his panels are normal than it is most likely psychiatric and he needs to keep trying.  It's hard to find the right meds sometimes but hang in there.  Counsling and meds work better than just meds alone. Good luck!

[banditbraith]

hmmm....so if he does have some sort of bipolar disorder, a medicine geared just towards depression might make it worse?


and yeah...I'm going with him to a new doctor, the one he's at has it in his mind that because he's only 18, that he doesn't have REAL problems.

thanks, I'll talk to him about what you've said

[ILADVOCATE]

Thyroid disorders can cause mood changes but what you are describing of his experience sounds psychiatric. Sometimes if a person has bipolar an anti-depressent alone can worsen the aspects of mania if that is not treated as well and a full mood stabilizer is what is needed but a psychiatrist would have to make this decision but if his psychiatrist is not aware of his current symptoms they should be because they might need to update his diagnosis and treatment within their understanding and judgment. At any time if there were any concerns about any underlying physical causes he could speak to a doctor about it. Caffeine is best avoided if a person has a psychiatric disability and takes medication regardless and some energy drinks have ingredients such as taurine which can cause mania and sometimes psychosis on their own so they are unsafe to take even if they don't affect him. He might want to speak to his doctor about his physical symptoms in addition to his psychiatrist and also try to think when they started and if it was when his medication was changed or before as that would help a doctor and psychiatrist both come to a better understanding of what is going on.