Читать книгу Welcome to the Jungle - Hilary T. Smith - Страница 11

Your doctor didn't just look at you and decide you had a bipolar face. Unfortunately, there's no blood test for bipolar disorder, but there are fairly rigorous guides in place to reduce the odds of being misdiagnosed (though people get misdiagnosed all the time). Doctors try to avoid a misdiagnosis by ruling out all the other possible causes of your symptoms before making a diagnosis of bipolar.

There are four things a psychiatrist takes into account before making a diagnosis of bipolar disorder: your current symptoms, your medical history, your family history, and your psychiatric history. Doctors see hundreds and hundreds of people and know what to look for. They look for patterns (“Wow, that guy talks in a constant stream without any pauses, and he hasn't slept for a week. And his uncle is bipolar, and he's taken four jobs”) that are consistent with bipolar. You, of course, are a beautiful and unique snowflake, but like it or not, there are a number of classic behaviors and indicators (big and small) that people experiencing mania, hypomania, or depression in our culture tend to present. Quibble over details all you like, but if the shoe fits in five places, they're sticking that sucker on your foot. P.S. Hope you like Velcro.