Maybe its not bipolar after all....

[worrysomemore]

so i was diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder a little over a month ago and have been taking seroquel which made me worse than ever and it has been my family doctors recomendation to fire the psychiatrist and stop taking the seroquel and get back on an ssri medication. has anyone had this happen? my psychiatrist seemed very uneducated but most importantly would not listen to me about how this medication was affecting my body and just kept telling me to take more and more... Im confused. My initial diagnosis was major depresive disorder with co morbid panic disorder and i did great on an ssri medication for a little over a year before i became pregnant... that is were the hell began. I had to switch medications in my second trimester after being drug free for the first trimester and was put on zoloft.... not good for me.. so now i am trying to figure ou5t which ssri to use. i would like Few side effects naturally....Oh i am so confused. How could a doctor be SO WRONG?

[el_dave]

Hey, the exact same thing that happened to our eldest! And the precise same solution! The worst part of it is that they kept talking as if it would practically be a crime if she stopped taking medications. one would almost tend to think it's not a mistake, but done by design. I guess that's paranoia talking. Hopefully, anyway.

[JKJ]

sorry for all of the problems you are having.  i really understand.  my bi-polar was misdiagnosed for many years...med after med after med and finally i said "no more meds" and what do you know?  no bi-polar symptoms!! LOL!!  i never had it.  

what i really have (and have had all along) is PTSD and chronic major depression,  the ADs had kicked me one time into a mania and the stupid pdoc immediately labeled me with bipolar.  sometimes i think these docs have a quota to fill of dx.

anyway...go with how YOU really feel, not with what the docs tell you you are feeling.  most of those meds are awful.
good luck!

[el_dave]

Some folks would say that's paranoid, but I think things like that happen. My wife and girlfriend are both medical types, too, one in the nursing end and the other on the financial side of it. They tell me stories of goings on that folks just wouldn't believe. Hildy (financial end) has had to leave a job because the physician wanted her to do some very creative billing.. yup, I guess medical types aren't above taking a bribe or six. I had quite a bit of seroquel here that I bought on the street to try as a sleep aid, but it just made me feel really wierd.. almost like an lsd trip coming on. This whole doctors thing is very new to me, I've always taken care of myself and done pretty well, I think, considering what I had to work with. I sure do wish you the best of luck in figuring out exactly what you need and getting to it.. at least you can be thankful you're the sort that does some research and doesn't just take whatever you're handed as the gospel truth. Oh, they tried to put me on that paxil stuff when I was depressed but it seemed to bring out anger, something I outgrew years ago. It's amazing how differently folks respond to these things!

[worrysomemore]

well in that respect i would be on my third opinion but on the same token, as a medical professional myself (not a doctor mind you) I found the psych doc i was seeing verry inexperienced and it has been HEll with the **** he has shoved down my throat. I will be finding a new doctor for sure but its interesting, 2 years ago my initial diagnosis was major depressive disorder with co morbid anxiety disorder and I was great for 2 years on paxil and an occasional anti anxiety pill, so i did some research and the symptoms of bipolar 2 and MDD are almost identical...... I thinnk the only exception was the mania which i have yet to have so who knows. Im convinced that the pharmaceutical company paid this doc to put ALL his clients on seroquel no matter WHAT was wrong with them.

[el_dave]

I don't know, but for sure it happens. Our eldest daughter was diagnosed as bipolar, and went through some hell for many years because of that. When she found out the symptoms that had caused the diagnosis were almost precisely the same as those I had when I cam back from 'nam and I had never taken medicine one to "cure" them, she stopped taking medications and stopped expecting to feel badly without them. Today she's medless and fine, and now they're saying it had to have been a misdiagnosis. I suppose they can make mistakes, like anyone else, and I'd say the "second opinion" concert is a darned good one. And perhaps a third and fourth opinion.