I actually have a similar question as Goofy.
 
When I was seeing one briefly, my counselor thought I had MDD. Then I saw a psychiatrist who thought I had Bipolar II disorder (a milder case of bipolar with more depression and limited hypomania).
 
Well, I have never had a manic or hypomanic episode in my life, but I have been suffering from extremely debilitating depression for about a year and a half now.
 
Once the psychiatrist put me on antidepressants, I started to become manic. At first, I took Zoloft, and I immediately became hypomanic within about one hour. After about 2 weeks, it escalated into mania (so scary, worse than the depression!). I had grandiose delusions, rocked back and forth, paced, was really agitated and violent, called everyone in my family, talked really, really fast, stopped sleeping and felt absolutely energetic the next day, thought I could a write a book that day and it would be on the best seller's list within the month, had so many new ideas and thoughts (racing thoughts) in my head that it was overwhelming, could not think about one thought more then about 30 seconds, went from one activity to another without accomplishing anything, and felt extremely agitated and scared.
 
I called the doctor immediately and he pulled me off Zololoft and tried Lexapro. I never developed mania on it, but when I went for a doctor visit 3 weeks later, my doc said I showed signs of hypomania (rapid speech, moved and fidgeted a lot, got "better" way too fast). Usually antidepressants take a few weeks to get us better, but I felt better within about an hour.
 
I also suffered from a terrible jolt of depression during the 2 days when I was off meds between the two antidepressants. My doctor thought I was rapid cycling due to being bipolar.
 
I have since been put on a mood stabilizer (Lamictal), and I feel so much better (it took about 2 weeks to start feeling better).  I feel much, much better without the antidepressants, almost no depression and absolutely no mania or hypomania.
 
Some helpful info: my father is bipolar, and my brother and sister have been diagnosed as having MDD.
 
 
I guess my question is:
 
"Can a person be labeled/diagnosed as being bipolar when they have only experienced mania/hypomania from antidepressants? Or does a person have to have had a manic/hypomania event without being medication induced? Is there such a thing as atypical bipolar disorder?"
 
 

My Psychiatrist tells me I have Major Depressive Disorder, refractory.  he also says that the Major Depressive Episode is probably the depression side of Bipolar disorder, however, the diagnostic code is MDD.  He says that this means that my depression is difficult to treat and that I will have MDD the rest of my life.  Is this true - the part about "the rest of my life".  He also said I scored "borderline on the Bipolar "test" he gave me.  My therapist (NCSW) doesn't agree with the semi-diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder.