Intrusive thoughts? Bipolar?

[LilyLavenderArt]

So there is a lot of mental health issues in my family (dad, brother, aunty etc) with bipolar, schizophrenia and borderline paranoia schizophrenia.

I'm on anti anxiety and depression medication, but every 6 months I have to up my dose ( I haven't been officially diagnosed with anything specific) because the depression starts to hit. But me and my family think it might be more?

For the first time in years (since about year 11?) I've gotten intrusive thoughts over the past few weeks, so I'm constantly battling myself. I get angry, I want someone to start a fight in the street just to hurt someone (even though I dont want to) just a few days ago I nearly got off the train because I was SO sure that it will blow up and I had to force myself to stay on because logically I knew that I was fine. I'm constantly fighting the intrusive thoughts that I can't just make go away. It feels like I'm split into two and it sucks. also I've come to terms with the fact that I can become obsessive over things like TV shows and characters, according to family members

I am going to see my doctor for another higher dose yet again, but I am going to try and get diagnosed properly. Given these intrusive thoughts, paranoia and family history, does it sound like it could be more than just depression and social anxiety?

[geoff]

Hello LilyLavenderArt, please let me offer you a warm welcome to the forums.

I'm sorry that you are suffering from these intrusive thoughts and know myself how much they can be damaging to our usual thought pattern.

These thoughts happen when people have OCD, but you really need to be diagnosed, and I say this because the medication you are taking may not be targeting what type of illness you are suffering from.

That's important because you don't take a vitamin if you have a broken leg, the same principle occurs with depression as there are an enormous amount of new antidepressants (AD) on the market, and what suits someone doesn't mean it will work for you.

Geoff.

[LilyLavenderArt]

Thank you for answering my post Geoff!

I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to organize seeing a psychiatrist which I am both looking forward to, and apprehensive about, despite having gone through this before. Talking about my mental state can get exhausting.

I don't know much about OCD, anything could be happening. However, I seem to have more paranoia and mood swings and even aggressive impulses. With the family history I wouldn't be surprised if it was some form of bipolar. My family is concerned that it might even be paranoid schizophrenia due to how much their is. My genetics kinda suck hahaha! Both on mum and dad's side (especially my dad himself, oh boy what a can of worms) their is a lot bipolar, depression and some schizophrenia.

I have two siblings on my mum's side and both me and my brother have mental health issues. My aunt (mums sister) has borderline paranoid schizophrenia, one cousin has autism, another has an eating disorder and only one of her kid's seems 'ok.' My uncle is a drug addict soooooo.... yeah. My family aren't strangers to it... really good support systems though

[geoff]

Hi Lily, thanks for getting back and I'd certainly like to know what the psychiatrist has to say.

Geoff.