Side effects and metabolizing medication differntly

[kelsey431]

So I have been diagnosed by two different psychiatrists the first said bipolar II the second cyclomania.  Also been diagnosed with ADHD but cannot take meds for it because of bipolar.  Or maybe I am just bipolar and was misdiagnosed...anyways I have irritability, anger, mild depression, hypomania, am very figity, have sleeping problems...I've tried abilify (caused too much muscle twitching and about 10lbs of weight gain but worked extremely well) also only was on 1 miligram when it was working -half a pill. I've been told I may metabolize pills differently so small doses to my body are larger.  I also took Lamictal or however you spell it and I got a rash so I quit that.  Also took Welbutron or however you spell that and that made me more irritable.  I'm thinking about taking an anti anxiety med.  I don't know what to do.  I need to be on something.  Does anyone know of a medication that is for cyclomania or bipolar that doesn't have bad side effects?  I need something to take care of my anger, depression, and I don't really care about the mania part because it's not bad at all if ever even appears.  

[ILADVOCATE]

As for mood stabilizers you can go to the links page but assuming you tried Lithium and Depakoate (which are the most used mood stabilizers) there is Trileptal, Topomax (topamax), Keppra and Neurontin. Those are more in use. Lovaza is an anti-cholesterol medication used experimentally for bipolar and it works in the same manner as fish oil. That is FDA approved and has shown promising results. I am on Clonidine which is used experimentally for bipolar and though it has a fair amount of side effects it does work. And there are more options as well. I post about the ones I know about. You need a concrete diagnosis as to what mood disorder you have and from there if you've tried known medications and need to try lesser known (but FDA approved for other purposes) mood stabilizers, I'd suggest your psychiatrist refer you to a mood disorders specialist. Often if a person doesn't respond to commonly used mood stabilizers others will work. As for side effects it depends on the individual person. The only thing I might disagree with what you said is "not caring" about mania. It may affect you less but you need full mood stabilization not just control of depression to fully recover. As I said you might ask for a consult to a mood disorders specialist and then your psychiatrist could follow up on what was reccomended.

[monkeyc]

I tend to take ADHD diagnoses with a big grain of salt for many bipolars, this is a condition which is massively over diagnosed anyway let alone as part of comorbidity with bipolar which is only common in the USA where every other BP diagnosis includes it.

Every drug has side effects.

I woudl suggest lithium as a starting point as its safer (if you ignore the FUD on the web an read the facts) and well understood.  But this is something you need to work on with your psychiatrist not in a forum...