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Old 18-01-2011, 01:42 PM   #3
ioa
 
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Join Date: Jul 2007

Thanks for the advice.

She said the Depakote is a mood stabilizer. I did mention that I sometimes will go from being in an OK, functioning mood to severely depressed (like from normal to crying) without much notice. Because her English isn't perfect, she may have mistook those symptoms for bipolar? I read some stuff on the internet and that is mainly what the drug is used for. I don't really know that much about bipolar disorder, so I can't tell if I am a candidate. I can tell that I've never really experienced anything that resembles "mania" or "hypomania."

I do have mood swings but I don't think they're nearly in that extreme range. I don't know... As I said, this is my first time so I'm just trying to see what's normal. I guess I should mention I'm living in Japan, so psychiatry is slightly different than in the States. Overmedication is kind of the norm, from what I hear :-/

I would love to see someone for a second opinion - unfortunately, that's not so easy to do where I live since the number of doctors who speak English (at that level) are very few and far between.

So... should I just take the meds and talk to her again next week? Or should I hold off taking them until I know what my diagnosis is?

I'm just... really confused right now :(

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