What Are The Signs And Symptoms Of Bipolar Disorder?

Posted on Sat, 9 Jun 2018

Question: I have been assuming that my mother is a narcissist, but was recently talking to my brother, who believes her to be bipolar, which his 2 children are, one officially diagnosed and the other not so, to my knowledge. We're not kids---, he's 71 and I'm 68.......he is an educated man, but has also diagnosed our late aunt with parkinsons, brcause she had a tremor. I am a retired, disabled nurse with many health problems. How do the 2 mental illnesses differ, and what might tell me what she really has?? It took me multiple encounters and years to see her as a narcicist. We grew up in a very dysfunctiional household, of course,with a father who probably had PTSD from WWII, and was an alcoholic, in their early years of marriage, and was dry on and off almost to the end of his life. He was also her opposite in that he was emotional stoic. I remember that for the majority of the years they were married, he lived downstairs and she lived upstairs. My brother somewhat disputes that, but I remember it that way. Our dad was a bartender most of his life. My mother has a Ph.d in early childhood education.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Ashok Kumar Choudhary (5 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Consultation

Detailed Answer:
Dear XXXXXXX
Thanks for using Healthcaremagic.

I read your query and understand your concerns about your mother and her behavior over the memory XXXXXXX

Although there are multiple differences between bipolar and Narcissist individual but the pervasive nature of narcissist differentiates it form episodic nature of bipolar disorder. The individuals with personality disorder known across the street for a particular pattern of behavior while the individuals with bipolar have phases of life in episodic pattern.

The another difference is lack of empathy in narcissistic disorder. The individuals with bipolar are contagious (may be for happiness or sadness) while the narcissistic have their same rules and only thing makes them happy is their admiration (you can call it narcissistic supply).

These two points are often used to differentiate between these two disorder when confusion arises.

I hope this helps you.
Feel free to write back to me if you have more questions.
Thanks and regards.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T