am I still manic or is it the medications?

[Cici_xo]

Hey all, new to this page. I've written in the alcoholism part before. Anyway, I've recently been diagnosed with bipolar 2 which I've assumed for years!  I'm on abilify, lamictal, celexa, and ativan.  I'm constantly fidgety and results, and can't concentrate on anything at all right now! There's more too but those are the most annoying right now. Am I still manic or is this side effects from my medication? Any advice would be helpful.

[Cici_xo]

Makes sense.

[Amy4891]

After I got manic and got put on risperdal (which is also an antipsychotic like abilify) it still took me a whole month to come down out of the manic episode with the medication. I don't think the medications are an instant fix sometimes you have to be on them for a while.

[Cici_xo]

Thanks somuch for the advice, I'm going to talk him about switching some meds up because this it's driving me nuts! He's slowly taking Mr of the celexa since I've been on it for quite a while. And this month was when I was finally diagnosed, and was put on the abilify which is an antipsychotic. I should ask him about seroquel. Thanks again!

[adel_ezz]

only a pdoc can tell you. However my poor knowledge suggests that 2 of your drugs can do that: abilify because it can give some anxiety and possibly the celexa too since bipolars can't successfully cope with antidepressants in general.

Note that you take 3 things against depression lamictal, abilify and celexa so I guess your combo is not perfect. So I can't say i am dead sure since i am not a pdoc but as you said it's the meds.

Pdocs are not prophets, what they write is subject to changes, even they themselves keep changing the meds continuously. Had they been sure about what they write then why the change. I assume trial and error is their main philosophy. Again BP is difficult to control considering that only an interview with the pdoc for a few minutes is the case and then you go to try the meds, no blood test for it . Although i watched on the local news here in Egypt usually referring to other channels that lately scientists discovered a blood test for psych illness. Of course this is absurd because it isn't all chemistry.

Also the more meds you try, the difficult conclusion as to what meds cause you to be unease. But if you are sure you are manic (only pdocs decide that) then you better stop the celexa since rule no 1 in BP antidepressants aren't taken during mania otherwise elongate the episode and the meds will increase later.

My modest view I think the meds need adjustment. You said you have been recently diagnosed. if you mean this month or this year say then usually at the onset of a disease they start by antipsychotics this i read once somewhere, later they revert to a mood stabilizer. True abilify is an AP but activating and can cause anxiety for some. On the contrary seroquel or zyprexa do not, but zyprexa is heavy. But you must accept also some weight gain if you use them