Please Help: I don't understand

Hi

PAST HISTORY:  I was dx OC D for 4 years (2002-2006). the combo was: [stelazin (typical AP), risperidone, anafranil (tricyclic AD), all in small doses]. After graduation I stopped the meds (not knowing the consequences then) yet I continued on the bloody AD (because depression was still persisting) until I had my 1st mania. Whose responsibility is that, I can't tell. My mother kept quarreling since then that my father ignorant of it asked the pdoc to lift the meds, but my father argues that the latter was the person responsible and he should have objected knowing the repercussions. Anyway we went back eventually to the same combo but added seroquel 25mg and neurazin (typical AP) to kill the mania.



Since then I had few shorter episodes not fully blown ones but I would eat like hell, sleep less etc… so I take the necessary AP's to stop it right away.



I recall having posted here timidly that I can beat BP if I can beat depression because I will not take any AD's thus no mania because I thought that I become manic under an AD ONLY.

Now something new occurred, this last manic episode occurred after 8 months of using stablon (coaxil) an SSRE and since then I tried hardly to find a weakest AD that doesn't cause mania to use it in the future. Yet in vain till now, but the new thing is that the mania yet occurred in December and I thought I stopped it via the AP's, apparently it is still there like fire under the ashes. Because I had a long period of 4 months (april-august) with no mania, even so I felt lethargic but surely no mania. What occurred yesterday newly is that I ate 4 lunches not 1 and sleep little, my voice was louder and kept walking for hours.



I really don't know what is going on. Either the mania didn't stop since December. OR that I was cyclothemic -> BP 2 -> BP 1. Also after every mania i know comes the depression naturally and this didn't happen this time. Do I understand that depression is gone forever and I had 2 successive manias (usually one has mania then mixed states then depression and so on). My onset of illness was with depression like most BP. Perhaps my meds are wrong only AP's and I should revert to MS but lithium i couldn't stand it and I was erring in the street for hours. ILADVOCATE said because it increased the AP's with its EPS effect. I read that 30% of BP pts don't or can't use ms. Or should I enter a hospital to remove the AP's then replace them with lithium.


I only wonder what is this, my pdoc says i am an atypical case of BP. vitamins make me energetic and high. my B12 is 500 (normal 150-2000)

I am sorry for this long letter, but am trying to figure out what is going on. Sure i am not a top mood disorder answerer as i can't understand myself. Perhaps i moved into the classical manic-depression side and no need for an AD to trigger mania as I thought it was the case. i.e. now AD or AD the mania will come eventually or is it because beginning of fall (seasonal variation). Can anybody explain the situation pls
thx
ezz

[paranoid_cataclysm]

This stuff can happen even while you're on the proper medications for it.  Think hard, is there some trigger that occurred which is causing this?  Perhaps you're building up a tolerance instead to the medicine?  Lithium is supposed to be one of the best medications for bipolar disorder if it works for the person in question.  It is a mood stabilizer that can even treat depression.

[adel_ezz]

1.i was fired from my job yesterday
2. i wasn't sleeping well for a week

[ILADVOCATE]

All anti-depressents have the potential of worsening mania and its best to be on a working dose of one of the antipsychotics used as a mood stabilizer (they are FDA approved for this use) or a standard mood stabilizer. The atypical antipsychotics have far more of a mood stabilization effect than the typicals but you could speak to your psychiatrist about this but at this point it would be best to discuss what would be the appropriate way to change and/or adjust your medications to obtain the proper mood stabilization effect.

[Athena_M]

Hi Adel,

Looks like the vitamins triggered mania in you.  The same happens to me, B-12 makes me manic, vitamin E makes me hallucinate and some brands of Calcium make me very angry.  The only vitamins I can take are children's gummy vitamins.  

My first manic/dellusional episode was triggered by taking lots of ******* vitamins.  I was in the hospital 3 months because the doctors thought it was schizophrenia and the medication did not help me.  

Finally one doctor diagnosed me with bipolar 1 with psychosis.  I finally got better with Depakote and Lithium.  The doctor gave me another medication to get rid of the voices and then finally I was tapered off everything and only took Depakote.  After 5 years of Depakote and 4 other hospitalizations, I ended up on Seroquel.  

I lost a job too because of my bizzare behavior, so don't feel bad.  You will end up with a better job.  

If you can go into a hospital that would be good for you to get on the right medication.  Maybe Lithium could help.  

Hope you feel better.