i need to make a change

[Egyptian3yez15]

Hello. I have been struggling with bipolar disorder since I was 17. I have been on my current medication regimen for about a year. I take 900 mgs of lithium and four mgs of respiridone.
I feel stable enough and I don't have outbursts anymore. Lets just say I have been giving my husband less trouble. I am now in my mid twenties and I experience a delay in my reaction time, however I still can feel hypomanic at times. I am good about not speaking too fast or one paragraph with unrelated statements, but I also don't have a filter when it comes to my personal business. nothing too racy or inappropriate comes out, but I would like to resolve these.

I  have had a history of not taking meds over different periods of my life for the past seven years. I have chosen to go months without taking them three times, each resulted in a hospitalization. I wanted to know how can I improve those concerns with a Dr. who does not monitor his patients well, and doesn't have an answering service. Because I want to change my medicine because it has negatively affected my sex drive as well.

I can't change Drs because I can't commute to the city, and my last Dr dropped me due to my infrequency of visits. I can only go to so many with the cost and he could not understand that his visits were adding onto my already high medical bill...that I btw still cannot pay.

The last time my current doctor tried to change my meds I missed about a week of them and I was risking the need to become an impatient once more until my husband and I set it right.

[Stacia04]

I too had the same trouble with my manic episodes and my doc suggested trying strattera for ADHD. It does help my tendencies to be loud, filter less, and hyper.

[Egyptian3yez15]

Due to my disorder I have put my husband through alot. I can't risk changing my meds due to the risk of losing him. But I know that if it is done right, which it can be. The outcome will outweigh the risk. I just don't think my new Dr will be on board. I live with my husband and his family, so even if he was patient enough to go through it all again, I really don't think his family is. And then I would have to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out, how to live without him.