bipolar meds??

[BP34]

I have just started taking meds for my bipolar yesterday for the first time in 12 years..... I wanted to talk to someone who knows about these meds.... I have never taken these or heard of them???

[rogelio63]

Don't take St.John's wort, it screws with the cytochrome P450 system in your liver and can change how your body metabolizes a lot of drugs, of all kinds.  It's fine to take by itself for mild to moderate depression but otherwise I wouldn't touch it.

[irishwriter]

everybody,is,different,..a,good,rule,of,thumb,is,,do,,you,need,it?does,it,work?
can,you,live.with,the,side,effects?

[Fiesty13]

Hi after going through therapy I relised I had signs from early child hood but for some reason whatever I was doing to cope worked.as time went on and I ended up with a really bad illness when I was pregnant with my first daughter,I was 22 and was paralysed from the neck down.when I started recovering physically the other things started.manicness,spending sprees,walking for hours everyday,continuous cleaning,talking fast,no sleep as my baby was poorly,mood changes and depression.u can imagine what I got told,I had post natel depression and PTSD and put on antidepressants.they made me manic so they gave me sleeping meds and beta blockers,ridiculous.i had years ov stopping and starting meds because they didnt help.i got refered and they said I had signs ov bipolar and refered me again,I stopped going to appointments.
Me and my partner broke up really badly after 8 years I got assaulted,my granda had just died and my daughter had severe disabilitys and I had a 1 year old little girl.trying to cut a long story short,I went manic for 6 mths then started having big shifts in mood,emotions,energy levels.got into a new relationship,had a miscarriage,my partner cheated on me and I just went loopy loo.was sleeping 3 hrs a night.never stopped,all the usual patterns,paranoid about friends,thought I was gonna get killed,I couldn't eat so they thought I had an eating disorder.i got refered again,went through 26 weeks ov therapy then refered again.ive now got meds which are doing great and going through therapy again and ongoing assessments.i sometimes hit and miss with my meds and every now and again it really frustrates me having to take them :-(

[Daj3]

I do not have much experience either as I was diagnosed a little over a year ago. Before that all the doctors I seen would just throw a pill at me and never explain what they were or why they gave them to me. All I knew is i had horrible panic attacks, mood swings,psychotic episodes(at times), etc and I really never sought help. When I finally started seeing these doctors it was at a mental health ER so they did not have much time to work with me. Anyway they put me on:
Risperdol (sp?)
Abilify
Trileptal
Klonopin
(All different times- nothing helped me)
At the time I expected the meds to work instantly so I didn't give them more than a few weeks to a month to work before I discontinued use. I will say that I liked trileptal. It seemed to help me when I had panic attacks. Again- I quit taking this because I didn't even know what it was for.
Fast forward to last year when I finally decided to seek help. I got a therapist and a psychologist- whom gave me a anti-depressant. I dont remember what it was though, that time in my life is a big blur. i was to manic at the time- and i do not have many memories of it.This led to me being hospitalized in the psych ward. As some people have stated, anti-depressants can be really bad for some people who are bi-polar. I was one of those "lucky ones" lol.

Seroquel was good for about a month for me, it helped me sleep and I felt rested he next day. As I continued to take it I seemed to want to sleep more and eventually could not get out of bed.
Topomax so far has been good to me. The initial side effects are not the best but tolerable in comparison. They seem to diminish after a while though. Also I lost weight so I'm happy about that.

If you are anything like me or many bi-polars you may feel temped to stop your meds. This is a big mistake. I am just now gettin back on mine because I thought I was "all better" and quit taking them. The bipolar cycle is repeating itself now and I am paying the price. It's not worth it. If your truly bi-polar you will never get better. As the people in the hospital told me- our brains are just wired differently.
As hard as it is to accept this, we will have to take something/ do something the rest of our lives.

Another thought- look into St. John's wort. If I am not mistaken I think it is more for depression, but as long as it is not taken with other products that contain serotonin- it may work. Talk to your psych dr about it if you would prefer to take the natural approach. It's only about $4 a bottle at Walmart here. I can not take it because it contains serotonin- and i would be at risk of serotonin overdose- which is no fun at all. Horrible in fact.


Wow I just went on a rant.

Hey, also keep in mind everyone is different. What works/ doesn't work for me may or may not work for you.

[Anonymouse88]

Oh I'm so sorry, venlafaxine is effexor, bulbulous is right.  I guess my brain is off today.  That one's an antidepressant, an SNRI.

[Fiesty13]

No I don't have a diagnosis of add or ADHD,it's bipolar/PTSD.the quitiapine also does wonders for my sleep,calms me down and stops mania.it had some antidepressant affect but not enough that's why they introduced venlafaxine.i have a history of going cookoo on antidepressants but with it being combined with the quitiapine it seems to be fine.the first week I went on them I had blips of mania but it seems to have settled down now

[Bubulous]

I have never taken Effexor but I am taking Seroquel.  It, for me, is a great mood stabilizer and a great sleep med.  It has a lot of great qualities like anti-depressant and anti-anxiety along with being a good sedative.  You will find people on here with experience with Effexor and likely the combination of Effexor and Seroquel.
You can gather up some information online about the meds and keep checking back for people qith first hand experience with these.

[Anonymouse88]

Quetiapine is the generic of Seroquel, which is an atypical antipsychotic.  You can use first generation antipsychotics (like thorazine) in bipolar, but they come with higher risk of movement disorders, so most doctors don't prescribe them for BP.  Venlafaxine is the generic of Vyvanse, which is for ADD/ADHD.  Some docs prescribe stimulants off label for BP, but generally not as a first try.  Do you have a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD?  The CrazyMeds website has information on the vast majority of BP meds (as well as meds for other "brain cooties"), including summaries of basic info you want to know and the full prescribing information sheets if you feel like slogging through them.

There's a lot of evidence that antidepressants are bad news for bipolar, at least when given without a mood stabilizer (and antipsychotics also count as mood stabilizers).  Even then, they send some people manic.  The use of benzos in BP is all off-label.  Different drugs might be warranted based on your individual symptoms (e.g., lamictal is better for BPII with mostly depressive symptoms, but zyprexa kicks mania in the behind).

[Fiesty13]

I only got put on meds last October so I haven't got much experience with those types ov meds.im on quitiapine and venlafaxine

[adel_ezz]

it's immaterial whether you heard of them before or not, the important thing is to follow your pdoc prescription. You don't gain much about knowing the list. some make you zombie, with others you put on weight, some tremors etc...you won't find the magic pill. However for your knowledge they are classified into 5 categories:

1. tranquilizers: benzo and the like
2. antidepressants (AD)
3. antipsychotics (AP)
4. anticonvulsants (AC)
5. lithium
the last 2 are supposed to be be called mood stabilizers (MS)

YET pdocs didn't come into terms about which to use for BP. To this moment AD's are damaging in my opinion yet new articles say they are useful. some say AP's only like my shoemaker, but you run the risk of NS , some MS, some lithium. In Britain where there exist the conservative docs, they write lithium (the king) and either/or an AC (depakote or tegretol) in the USA another AC (lamictal) etc...

my advice to you no one knows anything, it's a difficult illness

[rjwells00]

I have ried a long list of bipolar meds I could probably tell you my experience with them.

[Fiesty13]

What are the meds that u are on?