Hi,
Hopefully this is an allowed post and if it isn’t I will happily delete it.
I know this is probably a super commonly asked question but I am trying to get a better understanding of what is going on with me. I’m seeing a therapist soon, I could not get a psychiatrist immediately due to my location and issues limiting me to meetings over video calls, and I want to mention some things that I am concerned about. The issue is that I have never done this sort of thing before and my upbringing means that I have never really kept track of anything beyond recent memory.
So, my question are how do I bring up that I’m concerned about BD to my therapist when I see her soon? How do I identify what I should be looking for to add weight to my concern? I have some more basic things that are easier to bring up such as multiple siblings who are diagnosed and a lot of close relatives who are diagnosed or display symptoms(close as in one of my uncles, and several of my first cousins), and I also have periods where I’m very depressed/anxious/self image issues and it’s really hard to get my self to wake up and function at all and periods where I don’t feel noticeably depressed but I’m much more irritable and snappy towards my family, friends, boyfriend, and sometimes my pet.(I haven’t hit him as far as I can recall but I will scream at him very angrily and loudly over minor things like him just eating slightly noisy).
I also get much more vocal and comfortable with myself and have issues spending money on video games(I will spend $200+ in the matter of minutes on dumb stuff) and It’s also when I can’t sleep easily, I have found myself unable to sleep for around 30 hours during these times.
I’m kinda rambling here and I’m sorry about that but I just don’t want to go to the therapist and be either unprepared or mention things and ultimately be wasting her time.
If any advice could be given about any of this, especially what to bring up/what to look out for or your thoughts on this it would be appreciated so much!