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cis white male posted:i'm pretty lucky that lamictal is an anti-convulsant as well as a mood stabilizer so that if I suddenly stop taking it i'll have seizures and loving die Yeah I missed a dose of Lamictal once and was shaking uncontrollably by bedtime. It was one of the scariest things that I've ever experienced! All of you nuts need to seriously engage in CBT - it's saved my life to the point that when I "come out" to people that I'm bipolar they don't believe me. I'm probably going to jinx myself saying this, but I've even been working in the same job for 5 years! poo poo still sucks a lot, but I don't have a flat affect like a lot of you report and I think it's because I've repaired a lot of my broken thought processes through CBT so I don't need such heavy drugs (I take Effexor along with the Lamictal). If anyone wants to chat my PMs are always open  /tryhard post
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Jul 10, 2014 02:07
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Britt Burns posted:All of you nuts need to seriously engage in CBT
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Jul 10, 2014 02:09
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OP if this is a cry for help get therapy if not please stop posting lovely threads
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Jul 10, 2014 04:23
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maybe you should stop looking at flareups and symptoms of bi-polar flying off the handle as hinderances to your "productivity" or "focus" gently caress both of those things man. gently caress productive people. Right? whatever man. it's their fault. they made you what you are. us vs them. uhh......
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Jul 10, 2014 10:44
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edit: deleted Shirtless Rob fucked around with this message at 12:50 on Jul 10, 2014 |
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Jul 10, 2014 11:03
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Britt Burns posted:All of you nuts need to seriously engage in CBT this , cock and ball torture is cool and good.
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Jul 10, 2014 13:00
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Heeeyyyy look a krazy krew  I have some form of bipolar 2... ish. Rapid cycling I guess. I dunno, my few hypomanic states have always been triggered by being on the wrong medication. I guess it's the closest diagnosis they can think of, anyway, and I'm definitely on bipolar meds. Usually I am just always depressed, but my mood can swing violently within hours. One of the times I ended up inpatient, I was visiting some friends and having fun, and I was all "hell yeah, this is cool! what an awesome day!" Then I left, and by the time I got closer to home, I ended up at "if I don't go to the ER right now, I'm going to kill myself on the way home or when I get home." So I went to the ER and prolonged my stupid lovely life and here I am.  Right now I am on SIX different medications (lamictal, lithium, prozac, klonopin, neurontin, propranolol), with unimpressive results. I've been on a billion others, some of which had disastrous results. The lithium is fairly new, and it's giving me insane acne. I think it is helping, though, in that my days are more even. Day-to-day moods are still unpredictable, but that's still a lot better than it being hour-to-hour. The kicker is that my mood problems weren't as bad (or maybe I was better at coping with them) before I got cancer and had my whole life kinda ruined. So now I have to live with this bipolar crap on top of the lasting emotional damage that caused. Life just likes to poo poo on me.  (in which we post painful details of our personal lives on SA, Not A Safe Space)
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Jul 11, 2014 05:49
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People aren't manic-depressives.
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Jul 11, 2014 05:50
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you were warned posted:Heeeyyyy look a krazy krew Please talk to your doctor about replacing the Lithium with Depakote.
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Jul 11, 2014 16:30
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I tell the people I volunteer with that the medication takes a few months to kick in. Ironically, the person with bipolar won't notice a difference. You *need* people you trust to tell you if the meds are working or not. Stay on your loving meds. Do not gently caress around with this or it *will* kill you.
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Jul 11, 2014 16:43
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my bipolar aunt isn't a person b/c she killed herself 10 years ago not ironiposting  take your meds
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Jul 11, 2014 17:03
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tango alpha delta posted:I tell the people I volunteer with that the medication takes a few months to kick in. Ironically, the person with bipolar won't notice a difference. You *need* people you trust to tell you if the meds are working or not. uhhhhhhhhhhhh why cant you tell yourself
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Jul 11, 2014 21:21
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bipolar ppl are really annoying to be around and even though i know its not their fault i cant help but despise them well at least the ones that are off their meds. on meds they are p normal if kinda dozed looking. you can tell a lot of them miss the crazy highs too babypolis fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Jul 11, 2014 |
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Jul 11, 2014 21:43
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The Whole Internet posted:i'm glad to be just plain depressed instead of manic depressed
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Jul 11, 2014 22:11
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why don't people just abort every bipolar baby
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Jul 11, 2014 22:48
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Dolphin posted:why don't people just abort every bipolar baby Probably not a serious question, but here's a serious answer: bipolar doesn't seem to kick in until puberty and even then it's hard to diagnose properly. tango alpha delta fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 00:10
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killaer posted:uhhhhhhhhhhhh why cant you tell yourself I help teach people with bipolar that they need to train themselves to understand which feelings are 'real' and which ones are 'fake'. Until your mood stabilizes, you have no idea what is real and what isn't. That's why someone with bipolar who's never stabilized can't tell when they are getting better. They can't tell when they are getting worse either, because it's all real. tldr: Bipolar creates a huge emotional distortion field that seems very real, but it isn't. Meds can even this out. The reason why this all works is because the neurotransmitters in your brain affect mood. Lithium/Depakote/Epival/Trileptal stabilize the chemicals that transmit signals in the brain and the side effect is that your feelings stabilize. It's pretty exciting to watch someone transform into a more stable person. I've talked to creative types worried about losing their 'edge' because the manic phase settles down. I'm happy to report that the creativity remains. tango alpha delta fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 00:15
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tango alpha delta posted:I help teach people with bipolar that they need to train themselves to understand which feelings are 'real' and which ones are 'fake'. Until your mood stabilizes, you have no idea what is real and what isn't. That's why someone with bipolar who's never stabilized can't tell when they are getting better. They can't tell when they are getting worse either, because it's all real. wrong, creativity dies just like your soul when you take meds party hard bipolards
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Jul 12, 2014 01:06
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Roki B posted:wrong, creativity dies just like your soul when you take meds party hard bipolards I'm going to respectfully disagree with you because there *are* creative people who keep their creativity and lose the huge mood swings. It's loving awesome to watch.
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Jul 12, 2014 01:14
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I have borderline personality disorder. Kind of wish I could live in a bipolar head for a few weeks and see how it differs. I think the worst thing is trying futiley to get close to another mentally ill person, having an epic falling out, and suddenly feeling the deep realization of how everyone else sees you. And yet I keep trying. gagelion fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 01:20
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babypolis posted:bipolar ppl are really annoying to be around and even though i know its not their fault i cant help but despise them same the idea that I would be 'less creative' on medication kept me from it for years. found this to be a common belief for many super special intelligent insightful bipolar as gently caress people. took a while to realize that i couldn't do gently caress all with all that 'creativity and insight' cause when i was manic i couldn't sit still for long enough to create anything and when i was depressed i couldn't even manage to open up a Microsoft Word window the wonderful truth is that you're not in any way less 'yourself' on medication, you're just less manically in love with every thought you have. the ideas and insights are the same, it's your emotional reaction to them that changes and you have a greater ability to recognize the 'bad' and 'unreasonable' and 'destructive' ones. they also aren't zipping through your head at light speed so you can actually hold onto them people who are noticeably bipolar who don't take their medications are setting themselves up for failure, artistically and otherwise. yes there are examples of people whose mania made them very successful before treatment, (Larry Flynt, Steve Martin, ect.) but they are the vast minority cis white male fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 02:05
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gagelion posted:I have borderline personality disorder. Kind of wish I could live in a bipolar head for a few weeks and see how it differs. stay away from other mentally ill people outside of group therapy type settings. i've gone into those relationships with the idea of "We'll help each other, we understand each other, lalala!" and end up in a tornado of enabling each others worst qualities. can be fun though Learning to live with the guilt and shame and self hatred that comes from those "deep realization[s] of how everyone else sees you." has been the hardest part of this adventure for me
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Jul 12, 2014 02:09
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please kill m e
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Jul 12, 2014 02:28
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cis white male posted:if you are dating a bipolar person break up with them because they are lying to you about something or another. My best friend in a nutshell.
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Jul 12, 2014 02:35
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tango alpha delta posted:I help teach people with bipolar that they need to train themselves to understand which feelings are 'real' and which ones are 'fake'. Until your mood stabilizes, you have no idea what is real and what isn't. That's why someone with bipolar who's never stabilized can't tell when they are getting better. They can't tell when they are getting worse either, because it's all real. Yeah but you lose your laser beam powers.....I like my electro-emoto-sphere thank you very much
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Jul 12, 2014 05:10
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I have some lovely form of bipolar (at least my doctor says so) where I'm constantly in a mixed episode state. So I'm always depressed, irritable, anxious, and I'll spend every dime I have on some stupid poo poo I don't need. He thought it was major depression for awhile but we tried probably a dozen anti-depressants and none of them worked. Mood stabilizers do help, and I don't want to kill myself anymore, but now I get in trouble at work for not being able to concentrate or remember anything. The worst part of my life right now is being stuck in my lovely, lovely job because the thought of getting a better one gives me panic attacks. That, and needing 12 hours of sleep a day and not being able to get it. Monday_ fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jul 12, 2014 |
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Jul 12, 2014 23:15
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cis white male posted:
Sup meds buddy? This has been by far my most successful cocktail. It's been like 2 years and they're still doing okay. I am in a bit of a down spell right now. I just started crying for no reason a couple of days ago, so I'm pretty sure of it. Not wanting to hurt myself though, so all is good. I'll be okay in a few days. Also, since someone mentioned BP people only being artists, and not engineers...I'm an engineer and I'm drat good at it. I have to stay in a job where my projects are long term so if I spend a few days obsessively researching a sudden move to Amsterdam or just staring at the wall or something it's NBD, but I am great at my job overall. My life is generally pretty great actually. I like my husband, like my job, just make sure I go to therapy and take my meds so poo poo doesn't get bad.
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Jul 13, 2014 00:19
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tango alpha delta posted:I help teach people with bipolar that they need to train themselves to understand which feelings are 'real' and which ones are 'fake'. Until your mood stabilizes, you have no idea what is real and what isn't. That's why someone with bipolar who's never stabilized can't tell when they are getting better. They can't tell when they are getting worse either, because it's all real. This sounds so oddly familiar to something I never understood about ... well, at least a couple of people. Can you explain this more?
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Jul 13, 2014 00:31
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i heard that you aren't supposed to smoke weed if you're bipolar, and going without weed sounds worse than all the other symptoms combined imo
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Jul 13, 2014 00:35
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Ableist Kinkshamer posted:i heard that you aren't supposed to smoke weed if you're bipolar, and going without weed sounds worse than all the other symptoms combined imo You aren't supposed to drink alcohol either. My mood is a little better since I quit smoking weed and drinking, but it's much more boring.
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Jul 13, 2014 00:40
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It's funny, I've always known that bipolar people gravitate towards the creative arts, music, writing and so on, but I never thought there was an association between bipolar and engineering. Should have figured though, my father was a mechanical engineer and bipolar. It was something he was always open about, almost too much so. I learned all the signs and symptoms both so I could identify my father's state, possible triggers, and signs of possible manic depression within myself and my siblings. When I say triggers, I don't mean that someone will say a particular word and my father would go into manic mode, more along the lines of, 'if you experience consistent, chronic pain for long periods of time, it will stress your brain and most likely cause you to go into manic mode.' So if you're wondering why you're more elevated than usual? Might be because you're stressed about bills, it might be because you haven't been getting enough sleep, perhaps you overstimulated yourself, or maybe it's the classic abuse of substances, legal or otherwise. Stress is the mother of all delusions I've found, self imposed or otherwise. Sorry if I'm preaching to the choir, but I'd rather post stuff you guys already know than to think that someone with bipolar, or someone who knows someone with bipolar doesn't know about this. DIG FAST. D = Distractibility and easy frustration I = Irresponsibility and erratic uninhibited behavior G = Grandiosity F = Flight of ideas A = Activity increased with weight loss and increased libido S = Sleep is decreased T = Talkativeness Once you recognise the individual signs, you can work on each of them in turn. I've found that the ways that people talk about bipolar is usually in a black and white, binary fashion, which is totally unsurprising and to be expected. Whilst yes, there are extreme ends of the scale, one being horrific black depression and the other being you being at the centre of the universe with unrivalled understanding, energy, skill, and psychosis, it's a lot more constructive to think of it as a scale between 1-10. That way, when you are at 10, you can think, "I need to bring this down a notch otherwise I'm going to get arrested. I'm experiencing talkativeness, so let's shut the gently caress up for exactly 2 minutes and see how long it takes for me to ignore my own command. 45 seconds? Good, let's try better, let's go for 1 minute." etc. It's about mindfulness, being able to control your own impulses, learning when your mind/body is lying to you, and adjusting to compensate. CBT is paramount to living with the condition. CBT should your first port of call when considering treatment and coping strategies. Drugs have a definite place in helping. The decision to stop your medication is a SERIOUS move that potentially could endanger your life. Depression is dangerous. Mania even more so. If you are going to do this, at the very least, write some kind of potential care plan for yourself, the phone numbers for doctors, friends, family, etc. A diary also helps. Sometimes you can tell if someone was manic at the time of writing by how sideways and erratic the handwriting is. I encourage all bipolar people to consider the arduous process of getting someone into hospital when they are manic. Both for you, and for your friends and family. Witnessing mania can be loving SCARY. When irritability combines with delusions of grandeur, you can witness the kind of behaviour that makes determining the difference between borderline and bipolar so loving hard for doctors. And once people see that level of mania, it's extremely hard to change how you look at that person after that point. You start to think as to how much of the original person you can see, and how much of it is the bipolar talking. Of course, it's terribly unfair to think such a thing. That hint mania that you now see in that person could be the very loving thing that made you friends in the first place. I'm going to echo the sentiment that a great deal of self professed or professionally diagnosed bipolar people are insufferable. Going to groups will clue you into this very sharply. The idea that because you are bipolar, you are not in control of your behaviour, and destined for greatness, is irresponsible and unsafe. Whilst there are great perks sometimes with bipolar, there are terrible, mortal, dangers with the condition. Hope this somehow helps. It's been interesting reading the thread, and I'm glad it was posted.
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Jul 13, 2014 04:24
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MondayHotDog posted:The worst part of my life right now is being stuck in my lovely, lovely job because the thought of getting a better one gives me panic attacks. That, and needing 12 hours of sleep a day and not being able to get it. I was in the oh gently caress I need to sleep all day mode until my pdoc upped my lithium and threw geodon back into the mix. Geodon is none of that bullshit wait six weeks and maybe it will work ss/snri nonsense. I slept at a friend's house last night at around 3 am, I woke up on my own and my friend said good morning to which I said "bullshit it has to be 2 in the afternoon", nope, 10am. So yeah my cocktail is: -450mg Wellbutrin -80mg geodon -1200mg lithium And it owns
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Jul 13, 2014 05:23
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My ex wife has bi polar disorder. She also has a court ordered restraining order. Take your meds, kids!
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Jul 13, 2014 05:44
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Haha look at that tryhard post
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Jul 13, 2014 05:58
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mysunshine posted:Also, since someone mentioned BP people only being artists, and not engineers...I'm an engineer and I'm drat good at it. I have to stay in a job where my projects are long term so if I spend a few days obsessively researching a sudden move to Amsterdam or just staring at the wall or something it's NBD, but I am great at my job overall. math and sciencey poo poo is beyond me (actually they just require effort unlike liberal arts where you can just make poo poo up and doing p. well) but from what I've seen of engineering just as much artistry goes into it as anything else Ableist Kinkshamer posted:i heard that you aren't supposed to smoke weed if you're bipolar, and going without weed sounds worse than all the other symptoms combined imo a above average chunk of people with bipolar disorder also have substance abuses issues (genetics + trying to medicate the disorder) so they 'should not' smoke weed for the same reason that alcoholics and other drug addicts 'cannot'. weed also makes me very manic almost instantly. i smoked it for years and was tormented by what it did to me without realizing that it was the cause of so many issues. so now not smoking is a 'fun' change and a break from what I've been used to. Mr.Tophat posted:I'm going to echo the sentiment that a great deal of self professed or professionally diagnosed bipolar people are insufferable. yah. I think some of it is 'you hate in others what you see in yourself' but a lot of it is that unstable people with a tendency to be attention hogs, unreliable, secretive, dishonest, and sexually irresponsible is tiring and unpleasant. see: thread title the theory though that keeps me alive is that I essentially won't "be" bipolar because i suck down my meds, exercise, sleep well and keep a consistent schedule, and will be asymptomatic Roki B posted:Haha look at that tryhard post drat son, you showed her 
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Jul 13, 2014 06:52
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Kavros posted:This sounds so oddly familiar to something I never understood about ... well, at least a couple of people. Can you explain this more? Sure, no problem. Untreated bipolar has no emotional baseline, or what we would term 'normal range'. There's nothing to compare bipolar to. So, the first step is to get someone on medication, the right medication. Because emotions are subjective, the bipolar sufferer is not going to notice when they begin to stabilize, but close family and friends will. The next part is to teach the bipolar person how to recognize bipolar behaviour. Because meds create an emotional baseline, a way to measure bipolar symptoms now exists for that person. Here's the challenge: the onus to monitor and control is now on the person with bipolar. Make no mistake, this is hard loving work and requires a lifetime to recognize and master, which is why so many give up and give in. At this point, they *are* responsible for their actions. tldr: meds clean up the emotional signal, but individual has to work hard to keep poo poo together.
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Jul 13, 2014 19:34
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tango alpha delta posted:Please talk to your doctor about replacing the Lithium with Depakote. How come? The lithium's the newest of the bunch, and I do feel that it's helping. I don't know too much about depakote. I'm a CYP2D6 poor metabolizer (discovered via blood test as part of my cancer treatment), but it looks like that particular enzyme isn't involved in its metabolism. One of my big problems, I think, is that I have no idea how much I should expect of myself. I've always held myself to very high standards, so failure is crushing. My doctor was very supportive when I decided (a bit on a whim, and before I was ready, to be honest) to set in motion moving across the country to go back to my old job last year. That went badly, between a short inpatient stay and repeatedly getting injured on the job, and I ended up moving back across the country to live with my parents yet again. And here I continue to rot in suburbia. My family seems to always want to cheer me up, to the point of being dishonest. And a little hurtful--like they're dismissive. "Oh, but you're fine! You can do anything! You don't even seem depressed that much!" Yeah, I'm fairly good at hiding it. I've been told by multiple therapists that I "present well." But part of that is also because I stay away from people as much as I can when I'm feeling that bad. Yesterday I spent over an hour lying naked on the floor because I couldn't get myself into the shower, or even move. By the time I managed to go downstairs and interact, I was feeling better and able to laugh and smile and eat dinner with them. I don't know if I even have bipolar. What I deal with doesn't sound like what people describe here. But there's something wrong, but I can't tell exactly what or how bad or what to do.
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Jul 13, 2014 23:27
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you were warned posted:How come? The lithium's the newest of the bunch, and I do feel that it's helping. Kill you are self and then your famil
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Jul 14, 2014 08:50
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be wary of medication advice from folks who are not your doctor*. everyone reacts differently to them and someone might poison you against a good medication just because it did not work for them *including me
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Jul 14, 2014 16:15
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cis white male posted:be wary of medication advice from folks who are not your doctor*. everyone reacts differently to them and someone might poison you against a good medication just because it did not work for them Agreed. I am just a volunteer, which is why I always, always suggest talking to your loving doctor.
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Jul 14, 2014 17:16
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