Posted by Ritch on June 27, 2003, at 9:53:15
In reply to Re: Ritch, posted by Rainbowlight on June 27, 2003, at 0:17:44
> Seasonal summer depression huh? What causes seasonal depression? I hear quite a few people here mentioning it. Sorry you had such a rough day. I hate those days where you LITERALLY feel like the world is falling apart and that you WILL finally go crazy, once and for all. EVERYTIME I swear I will never feel better again, so then hubby has to give me the "things always get better, hang in there" pep talk. It's strange how when you are in the middle of the depression you really think you will never feel better. I get that stiff/pained feeling if I go too high on the Zoloft. Can you take a sleep med to help you get some sleep? I sleep a little too long on the Restoril, about 10 hours. But at least I FEEL rested when I get up thank goodness. I am still having that icy/hot weird feeling on the top of my head. Feels like I rubbed Ben Gay all over my head. And definately a numb feeling only on the left side of my head. Strange! But I feel good, so what the hell! Just curious if you, also being Bipolar II, have a bad long term memory like I do? Do you rapid cycle daily/hourly? For me it can be hourly, which is a pain in the butt. I can feel horrible in the morning, great in the afternoon, grouchy by night. Never quite know how I'll wake up in the morning. Orthostatic hypotension? Can you explain that one to me, I'm not quite as knowledgable about these things as you are. Tomorrow I see the pdoc. Have to convince her to put me back on the Restoril. I think she will go for it (at least I hope so!). Wish me luck!
Good luck with the Restoril! I *seem* to need a benzo to be fully functional. When I was first put on them back in the '80's a couple of years after I was on lithium, it was a breakthrough improvement in my symptoms (esp. the high potency ones-at the time Xanax and Ativan-although I settled on low-potency ones for chronic use). I was first offered bzd's by the 2nd pdoc I saw, right after I was dx'ed bipolar. At the time they had a bad reputation (there was a lot of abuse-I knew a few people that abused them horribly-and their docs kept writing..). Anyhow, after seeing all that going on I *refused* the benzos by the pdoc I saw. I told him I thought they were addicting and didn't want them, then asked how much Valium he was wanting to prescribe-5mg a day or something? He came back with: "How about 10mg 3x daily? I guess I was VERY anxious at that time. ;)
Orthostatic hypotension? Changes in blood pressure (sudden drops), when you change posture-standing up suddenly. I think I really mean *postural* hypotension. Your BP drops-your heart rate picks up in response-and you get real dizzy. TCA's and MAOI's have a tendency to cause it. But, I don't like those effects, because I can feel them just walking around and making subtle posture changes. It feels like my body is always "following" me by a few seconds, yuck!
My cycling? It runs about every 3 weeks or 20 days or so. Sometimes that shortens (it did last month when I tried some Zonegran and it made things worse), or lengthens (Trileptal noticeably seemed to help that) in response to meds. Otherwise-the major depressions (if they strike) are in late Fall-early Winter (typical SAD), and then in Summer. The best correlation I can find is the absence of light (winter), and presence of HEAT (summer). I like COOL AND BRIGHT. HOT AND DARK = BAD.
poster:Ritch
thread:236812
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030624/msgs/237480.html