Bipolar Type 2

[tweekie]

I was diagnosed with Bipolar Type 2 about 2 years ago, but I don't know how much this fits me. I've been diagnosed with Major Depression with recurrent episodes for about 12 years now.  I don't know if I agree with the dx. I had one what you would call manic episode, but I'm not sure if it was a manic episode. I definetely felt like I had the hyperinflated confidence. I started dressing more theatrically, I walked around in a cowboy hat for a few weeks, had a lot of sex, was super horny all the time, drank alcohol a lot. I got a passport rush delivered to me because I thought my life would come crashing down on me and that I'd have to leave the country and assume a completely new identity, minus my daughter. I was in the middle of Nursing School, under a lot of pressure, splitting up with my daughters father, who  basically told me I have to move out without my daughter, had no job, no place to go but a decrepid house that belonged to my grandmother, where her alcoholic daughter and husband live with their 3 kids.
Was this just a case of someone cracking under pressure? Or was this a hypomanic episode? I tried depakote and lexapro but I didn't like either. Then I cracked again after I stopped taking the two drugs about 3 months later, thought I had rabies and was going to die.  I had repeated panic attacks, about 4 a day with intermittent extreme anxiety. I made repeated trips to the ER telling them that I thought I had rabies and that I wanted the vaccine. They kept prescribing me benzos which I did not like taking.  Finally my doc put me on effexor, which I have been on for a year and a half. If I was truly bipolar wouldn't I have suffered a manic episode by now?

[zzzmykids]

Lots of good comments, esp. from ILADVOCTE and corlenbelspar.  As both have said only a psychiatrist can really answer your question and if he/she puts you on meds, like effexor, stay on them!
I think I am still manic but not psychotic.  If psychotic is saying and doing things you are unaware you are doing until someone tells you, I have been psychotic.
For, Bp2 you only need a manic...a small one...to be classified bp2.  We remain on the darkside most of the time.
I do believe medication side effects can have a big draw back for us BUT I have never gone off any prescribed med without dr approval.
Be well and may God bless your journey...no belly of big fishes for you! :) zzz

[ILADVOCATE]

I would think the way each person experiences bipolar is somewhat different and even psychiatry is determing new classifications all the time so I couldn't say what it was for sure. You'd have to ask your psychiatrist and sometimes when things get complex a mood disorders specialist can be of use. I know I was almost referred to one a while back. Psychosis can easily be part of a mixed state. Its often not the exact diagnosis that matters but finding the right combination of medications and even I am still trying but much better by far than I was years ago. Working with your psychiatrist to find the right combination of medications that can help is still more of an art than a science but as they identify new treatments (and certainly new medications that are FDA approved are studied as mood stabilizers all the time) one point that we'll all reach eventually which is stability.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I think it's sad that mental illness causes problems like this.  When people tell me that I'm not the only person going through the problems I'm going through I think it's actually a depressing thought because I don't want other people to have to go through what I'm going through.  It's hell.  I always hated how it effected people I care about like with what you said.

[tweekie]

Do you think the psychotic breakdown I described was a mixed state gone over the edge?   You know luckily I haven't had a psychotic episode like that since I've been taking effexor. The effexor really helped a lot. I thank God for it because I was ready to commit suicide. I basically was in psychosis for the whole summer. I had anxiety most of the time, I cried a lot, thought every sensation I had was a symptom of rabies, I even thought I was salivating more, I took my temperature 20 times a day, my pulse and heart rate. I visited the ER almost regularly. One time I even woke up in a panic attack, my heart rate was 120 and my BP was 149/80. They kept me over night and gave me valium, which did nothing for my delusion state. During this time I lost a lot of weight and smoked like a chimney and wasn't taking any illegal drugs. In fact when I'm depressed or crazed I usually don't want to take any drugs at all, not even drink, just smoke tons of cigarettes and pace. When I'm feeling mentally high, hypomanic is when I want to drink lots of alcohol or do drugs. My friends were all worried about me. I stopped talking to most of them. It was a real drag for my daughter, i felt like she was without a mother for the whole summer, though I wanted to be a good mom for her, all I could think about was that I was going to die. It was horrible. I couldn't talk myself out of it, like you are saying. I wished I could, I prayed that I could but it was so damn hard.

[ILADVOCATE]

  The same is true of mania and it can cross over into psychosis in people with schizoaffective or bipolar with psychotic features. Although I had a close to full mitigation of psychosis with what I am on, last night was the first night in years that I went to bed at midnight and slept a full night. Before that I was going to bed at 3 A.M.  That one prescription I am taking does function as a mood stabilizer.The rapid cycling did exascerbate psychotic thoughts because the antipsychotic agent I am on just like the current ones needs a mood stabilizer in a person with schizoaffective and Clonidine is not a particular good one nor was it originally prescribed for that purpose. When I took the full night time dose of what I am the psychotic thoughts would stop completely but as its short acting they would return overnight. Now they went back into a basic complete remmission. I had forgotten that night time is for sleeping lol.
  I should be able to spot mania in myself as I can spot it in other people. When the family member who is diagnosed with cyclothymia but hasn't started treatment yet went into an agitated mixed state I explained afterwards after I talked her down "the problem wasn't that you couldn't calm down, its that you couldn't come down". Its an unnerving feeling and when you get caught up in it hard to get away from without treatment. Psychosis is a complete lack of reality testing so you can't talk yourself out of it. When one is psychotic best to speak to their psychiatrist as catching it early before it takes over your mind is the best way.

[tweekie]

Oh, I thought I was dying, and no matter how much I would try to convince myself it was in my head, I knew at the core that I didn't believe it, I thought I was going to die. I started reading the bible several times a day and saying the Lords Prayer. I started believing in Jesus Christ heavily. I couldn't make eye contact with anyone, because I was so anxious about the fact that I was dying, even though this wasn't true. Everyone told me that it was in my head, but this didn't matter either. Even the benzos didn't take that feeling away, they just damped it down a bit. Now that I look back I know this was a delusion, but you couldn't tell me that while it was happening.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

The funny thing about psychosis is a lot of times you don't really realize your thoughts and beliefs and even sometimes the hallucinations caused from it are psychotic until they come to pass and sometimes then you still don't know they were psychotic.

[tweekie]

Keep seeing the p work, psychotic, sort gets me worried. I don't see myself as psychotic. My doctor doesn't think I'm psychotic, I think he just thinks that when I'm very depressed I can get this way. I remember calling my therapist while I was in San Diego on a nightmare vacation, where the whole time I thought I had rabies or something was terriblly wrong with me. I might add, I was also on a medication for birth control called yaz, which I think contributed to the whole thing. I have heard of other cases of women becoming terrified hypochondriacs. This couple with the depression and anxiety I think made for poor bed fellows. Do you think that people who are Bipolar tend to handle stress in unhealthy ways?

[Worn_Out]

What you desribe does sound like a psychotic state and it also sounds very much like my sister.  A lot of what you describe she has gone through and is still going through and she is definately pyschotic ...

[jimgreg]

not everone goes into a manic state..now i go into mania,,but it to me is not a manic state...to be honest  urs sound like a phystoic issue you had,..from being severely depressed..and they cant rule this out when ur this depressed..i been threw some pretty bad things as you are and end it in the e.r.  with 200 mgs of serquil to sedate me..then to find out i was severely depressed...this can happen to sevre deppressed people,,among panic attacks...but the diagnoses of bp2  is ussaly in a deppreshion state like you describe with hypomania....

[adel_ezz]

I know two sites:

Apart from the site advised by IL
http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.bipolar.html


i believe 2 of the best sites on bipolarity, the 1st advised by ILADVOCATE. He can provide more. Incidentally there is BP1, 2, 3, 4(4.1, 4.2,..) finally called nonspecified BP.

[opus88]

goodmorning everyone..
IL you often mention a website...can you give me the address of a good site that explains all the bi-polar types along with symptoms??
I've found a few but they mostly concentrate on BP1 an BP2....and alot of advertising for meds thrown in.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I can't agree with you enough on against all good judgment to never just stop a medication.  The initial withdrawal is just horrible but then it's the rebound neurological and psychological problems that is really scary.

[ILADVOCATE]

Only a psychiatrist could make an exact diagnosis but this would go beyond what I would believe to be the normal reaction to stress. Anxiety disorder can co-exist with bipolar or be a part of it. Hypomania can turn into mania if not treated. If you stopped the medications all at once you may have gotten withdrawal symptoms and when I did that (against all good judgment would never do it again) I had hallucinations of having rabies (horrific) as well but then again I have schizoaffective disorder and before my recent recovery (read through my posts) I had psychotic thoughts as well. I of course couldn't say what's going on for sure but I'd say you need to have a full diagnosis. As for Lexaporo its an anti-depressent so it can sometimes worsen mania. Depakoate is a good mood stabilizer but sometimes doesn't work on depression and of course there are many other options. Lamictal worked well for me on rapid cycling but each person reacts differently. We have some good websites linked up for informational purposes. You could read through those and discuss the information with a psychiatrist.