How do you tell the difference between regular teenage girl puberty and Bipolar Disorder?

I know that teenage girls go through a point where their emotions 'go crazy' do to hormones, but when you are a teenager how do you know if it's just hormones, or if it's bipolar disorder?How do you tell the difference between regular teenage girl puberty and Bipolar Disorder?
What you want to do is look at the severity of your symptoms and how long your mood swings last. Normally, in Bipolar disorder each mood swing will last for weeks or months. You will be severely depressed for months at a time, and then you will be overly happy for weeks or months at a time with periods of normal mood in between. These moods are nonreactive to things that happen in your life, you'll be happy no matter what happens, or sad no matter what happens. Although there are triggers that can spark an episode.





When you're hormonal the mood swings usually happen several time a day and are provoked by something, even if the mood is an over reaction. Like you'll be really mad at what your mom said, then you'll be sad. Then you'll think of something your friend said and be happy again. There are clear reasons for your mood swings ,all though they are all out of proportion.





More importantly, Bipolar disorder is more than just mood swings, there are a plethora of other symptoms that go along with the disorder. Read over the web-site I gave you and it should be much clearer.





It is important, though, not to self-diagnose. The only way to know for sure is to got to your doctor and tell him/her about your symptoms.How do you tell the difference between regular teenage girl puberty and Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar involves a very distinct pattern of depression and mania. Each phase of mania or depression will last for around a month to a year (or more if untreated) and there often is a period of 'normal' mood before the phase changes. Rarely people can be diagnosed with 'rapid cycling' bipolar and will go from depression to mania from week to week. This is a good way to think about whether it is just puberty - do you find your mood changes quite quickly and you have different moods in the same day? If yes its really unlikely you have bipolar.


This is a very simplified way of describing Bipolar disorder but I hope it helps with you concerns. Puberty is crazy but fun and exciting too once you get a grip of it! Talk to friends.. some of them might feel the same way. Good luck honey!
I always thought it was probably normal, and I never would have asked for help anyway, but.... eventually I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when I was 19. What really sent to me a doctor was the fact that my moods were ruining my life. I was doing terribly in school and my boyfriend and I almost broke up because of me being out of control. I went in for a yearly checkup in May after my freshman year of college (I was barely 19), and I told my general practitioner that I thought I was having problems with being too moody. I was surprised how concerned she instantly became and she told me that it was possible that I have bipolar disorder, especially since it's a little more common in people with ADD, and I promised her I'd check it out with a counselor when I went back to school. It was really hard to tell my parents that I thought I had a problem like that, but they of course wanted me to get help even though they didn't really want to believe I had it until after I went to see two different psychiatrists. I/they then accepted that my GP, counselor, and two psychiatrists might be onto something with the bipolar disorder diagnosis... I am 21 now and I am the happiest I have ever been after a few years of counseling and adjusting medication. I am not perfect, but I feel like my life is way more under MY control instead of my emotions' control. If you do turn out to have bipolar disorder, I really suggest you see a counselor once a week-- it helps me as much as the medication does I think, and she knows what direction I'm heading in (manic or depressed) before I do now, which is extremely helpful.





If your mood swings are screwing up your social, work/school, and/or family life, you need to see a doctor, because it will only get worse if you don't get help.
Bipolar disorder is a lot more serious then a hormonal outburst. I would say depending on the time span of the episodes(?). Another way would be to see what triggers the emotion and how serious they become. Bipolar involve two extreme mood swings ergo puberty would probably not be as dramatic as bipolar.
I have a family member who is bipolar and before he was diagnosed he went absolutely crazy. It was bad. If you are concerned enough I would recommend going to a doctor and getting tested or something. I had two older sisters and they never were too crazy when they were teenagers.
You don't. The only way to know is to go to a psychiatrist and wait to see if he diagnoses you with anything. Talk to your parents about mental disorders that run in the family, and ask your mom what puberty was like for her.





EDIT





I was unlucky and went through puberty and had (have) bi-polar disorder. It can be well confused. I'm sorry to say, but my parents thought it was just purberty until I started cutting. Then I had to go through 2 years longer before I was diagnosed. In addition, there is no test to see if you are bi-polar, all we have right now is observation. The closest you will get to a 'test' is a sheet asking about mood, sleeping and eating patterns.
Excellent Question - this is an issue that is difficult for even trained professionals to distinguish. It's very hard to diagnose in many cases and there are many misdiagnosis.