Is anyone else here bipolar?
Do you feel whatever form of treatment you are receiving is helping or will help you?
I was diagnosed last November after a severe depressive episode. I went on to refuse medication after hearing other people talk about their experiences with the drugs I was going to be put on. I have just completed a course of CBT though I don't think it has helped much. My counsellor is crap and I don't know why I bother telling her anything because I just end up having to explain something four/five times a session and she still doesn't understand or can't grasp it.
i dont know if it counts but my psychologist has suggested recently that i may have bipolar but i hav just had to leave him because im about to turn 18. he said he was almost definite that i have it but he was unable to diagnose it as i am only 17 (18 soon). but yeh he didnt explain any of it to me so im just left hovering over the path of unknown.
i know i probably shouldnt post in here but i am just sort of hoping someone out there can help me through this.
i'm bipolar. my counselor has tried to focus on what kind of coping skills i can use to manage both the depressed and manic episodes. for example, if i can tell i'm getting manic and a bit psychotic, maybe tell someone. or go find a project to distract myself. if i'm depressed, go do something that makes me feel better. if anxiety is involved, use breathing exercises. of course this is all easier said than done as i very well know. but i would focus on trying to find a counselor you connect with. you can also research it online and maybe find some helpful tips. i'm on 3 meds right now and i don't think any of them are working. but you could always try it and see how it goes. i do know people who have been helped alot by meds.
I'm bipolar. I am on anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and a mood stabiliser. I won't lie, I do get some side effects. But the benefit far outweighs the negative. Which drugs were you offered? Could you ask your doctor for different drugs if you're unsure about the ones you offered? Also, people do react differently. My mood stabiliser is notorious for weight gain but it has killed my appetite. There really is no telling. Sorry you don't find your counsellor useful. Could you see someone else instead?
Yeah, I'm bipolar. Everyone's always "worried" about me. I'm on anti-depressants, benz...whatsits..., and mood stabilizers. The medicine helps a lot but they keep having to up it. :(
Before the eyes the beauty is wasting away
Reflections praise, she's dressed in decay
You see the struggle flood the skin
From promises to paper-thin
She turns a blind eye, will of stone
From stunning smile, to flesh and bone
I was offered the mood stabiliser Carbemazepine but after hearing of nasty side effects and considering whether I was actually happy with taking any drug I turned it down. I know that some people can be helped an awful lot by meds, but I don't want to solve my symptoms. I want to solve the issuses that cause the symptoms, or at least attempt to. The chemical imbalance label has never sat well with me because I look in to my past and chemical imbalances have played very little part in it. There are reasons/triggers for my mood swings - even if it is just a string of arguments.
I have had CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) and focused on coping mechanisms and early warning signs but I don't feel as if I learned anything new. I could always tell when I was getting worse and I already had somethings to distract myself with.
The difficulty in getting a new counsellor arises because she happens to have taught me in years 4 and 5 and I sort of don't want to offend her or whatever.
I'm bipolar. I used to take meds, but I didn't like them very much. I felt boring without the mania. I felt like I wasn't myself.
Sooo I quit taking the meds. Then after a few months w/o meds, my therapist determined that I needed more "intense treatment" and said that she couldn't treat me anymore, so I went to a new one, she said I was "too severe of a case" for her, and now I'm starting with a new round of shrinks.
I don't particularly like shrinks. They tend to piss me off. And I really don't like medication. but I know I prolly need it.
(and now time for me to be a major hypocrit)
but my advice to you is to assess the situation. How severe are your moods? Are you, and be honest with yourself, a danger to yourself or others? Is the disorder keeping you from doing daily tasks (keeping up in school, work, socially... wherever) Think about that, and then think more about meds. If your moods aren't too severe, you really aren't a danger to yourself or others, and its not keeping you from doing stuff, then... well, you've prolly been misdiagnosed. you might have a minor mood disorder, but not bipolar. But if any of those things apply, you prolly should be taking meds.
There are lots of them out there, you can find some that will work for you.
or you can continue to be unstable if that's what you want. you can do a little bit in therapy... but if you really are bipolar, then therapy alone isn't gonna do it.
suport love.
What if everything around you isn't quite as it seems? What if all the world you think you know is an elaborate dream? What if you could look right through the cracks? would you find yourself afraid to see?
Its been continuosly suggested over the past year that I may be bipolar however I have not yet sought out diagnosis, since I was due to turn eighteen and had to leave the most amazing counsellor I ever had in November. Its believed that I am rapid cycling etc... almost like childhood bipolar, where it can change in just hours and days rather than just three or four times a year.
I actually am about to persue a diagnosis (well that sounds like I actually want to be diagnosed bipolar) what I mean is I just want to know what is wrong with me, because it gets so very severe, and I need help.
I went on prozac before it was seriously considered that I may be bipolar, and the numbed me (which I liked) but they thought it was bad so erm, yeah. I guess it depends on what you want from medication really.
I was offered the mood stabiliser Carbemazepine but after hearing of nasty side effects and considering whether I was actually happy with taking any drug I turned it down.
I'm very suprised by that. I've been on carbamazapine for two years now and havent had or dont expect to get any side effects.
I'm bipolar. I used to take meds, but I didn't like them very much. I felt boring without the mania. I felt like I wasn't myself.
Sooo I quit taking the meds. Then after a few months w/o meds, my therapist determined that I needed more "intense treatment" and said that she couldn't treat me anymore, so I went to a new one, she said I was "too severe of a case" for her, and now I'm starting with a new round of shrinks.
I don't particularly like shrinks. They tend to piss me off. And I really don't like medication. but I know I prolly need it.
(and now time for me to be a major hypocrit)
but my advice to you is to assess the situation. How severe are your moods? Are you, and be honest with yourself, a danger to yourself or others? Is the disorder keeping you from doing daily tasks (keeping up in school, work, socially... wherever) Think about that, and then think more about meds. If your moods aren't too severe, you really aren't a danger to yourself or others, and its not keeping you from doing stuff, then... well, you've prolly been misdiagnosed. you might have a minor mood disorder, but not bipolar. But if any of those things apply, you prolly should be taking meds.
There are lots of them out there, you can find some that will work for you.
or you can continue to be unstable if that's what you want. you can do a little bit in therapy... but if you really are bipolar, then therapy alone isn't gonna do it.
I am not stupid, I know that the best results come from a combination of drug and talking therapies. But I felt worse in myself because I was having to take the pills. Once I made the decision to stop them I felt brighter because I was actually taking charge of the treatment I receive. At the time my psychiatrist was happy with my decision but said if I got worse then there really would be no choice in the matter and I'd have to go on them. I know a fair few people who are taking the pills - and have done for at least 2 decades - but are still unstable so its not even as if the pills are the best thing since sliced bread either.
And don't attempt to tell me what I do and do not experience when you know jack about my episodes
Hey Tortured Beauty,
CBT has been the biggest help in my life, but it takes alot of practice. It took three years of my using what I learnt along with meds to see a difference. Try not to listen to naysayers. I had to filter out even medical people (non- MH specialists) telling me not to take my meds. Bipolar is one of the most treatable, manageable conditions. That is if you take your meds, practice the coping strategies and talk to your counsellor or psychiatrist.
Don't give up- I went through 4 different medications before I found the right one and I managed to complete University when I finally got stable.
There is hope.
Oh just saw your last thread. Well I will say that I am trying to lessen my meds as I only went on them to get through Uni. But quite humbly I am doing it with the supervision of my psychiatrist. Withdrawal is pretty severe and the usual advice is that you have at least one year of stability before coming off.
No one thinks you are stupid. You are the greatest expert on your condition because you are the one going through it. It is hard to get other people, 'shrinks' and family to understand what you are going through. But this will be 7 years for me, my family doesn't understand after all this time- but I try to remind myself that they love me.
People on this site just want you to know that you are not alone.
~Happy tomatoes together we will be~
You say toe- may- toe, I say toe- mah- toe:
Let's call the whole thing- red
“It’s time to lead the third revolution, which is not to say we want to be at the top of the world, but to say we want to change the world. Because the way the world has been designed by men is not working. It’s not working for women, it’s not working for men,
it’s not working for polar bears.” Arianna Huffington 2014
I might be a bit bipolar but without my manic episodes I'd not be the creative and fun loving person I am now, the moodswings are just part of me, I don't go to a store spending 1000's of dollars on stuff I don't need and then fall into deep depression wanting to off myself, so I think it's all quite managable. REBT/CBT did really help me a lot, I read up on a lot of that stuff on self help sites. I, too, refuse to take fat pills, ak meds, imo they're pure poison only needed in the worst cases.
I was diagnosed with bipolar in april. Currently I am on effexor xr [antidepressant] and depakote [anti-seizure also used for manic-depressive episodes] I was on mood stabilizers/anti-psychotics for a while, but I gained so much weight that I almost developed an eating disorder trying to lose it. I never hallucinated or heard things before, but strangely, with the depakote I have had a series of flashback like dreams and I see my dead friend everywhere and I hear people calling my name all the time... and I just realized I should prbly post this in the 1st aid forum...
