Posted by fluffy on October 23, 2003, at 11:15:55
In reply to Re: Linnette?? Anyone? I got manic last night., posted by linnette on October 23, 2003, at 0:26:44
Hi Linnette--
I'm having a very hard time right now. I totally crashed from my little high. I felt ok yesterday, but I had nightmares, bad sleep, and woke up crying this morning. I'm staying at my folk's house until I get through this little pinch of mine. It's worked before to get support from them, but they have never acknowledged the biological basis of my illness.
This morning, when I was crying and feeling scared about my doctor's appt. (I actually called yesterday morning to tell him I got manic, and that I might flip my lid if I took WB that morning). My dad and I got into an argument about my depressions, and he said that I should just pray more and read my bible and go to church. Incidentally, I did all of those things when I was religious, but it didn't work to stave off these relentless depressions. Needless to say, his advice only made me more upset, and he felt that he wasn't being heard.
He's very frightened of psychiatrists, as his mom went through shock treatments, but never got better, and eventually just went psychotic (who knows what she has now...the 1950's weren't the most enlightened years of psychiatry!!). Even though my dad has had really bad mood swings and depression, he is too frightened to see ANY doctor, let alone a psychiatrist. Anyway, I almost wouldn't mind trying ECT at this point. I'm feeling really helpless. It's really scary when you feel that the ones who are part of your "core circle" start to doubt you. I broke up with my boyfriend a month ago, who was one of the only ones who knew that it wasn't my wish to get severely depressed on a yearly basis. But unfortunately, I couldn't deal with some of the other issues going on in the relationship, so I had to let it go.
I also think I might join a support group and try to get some heavy duty counseling from the mood disorders clinic I go to. It's free, and I don't have to worry about religion or judgements coming into it.
I'm sorry to only talk about myself right now, but my brain is too muddled with sadness to think about meds.
I do hope you are feeling better, Linnette. It sounds like the Lamictal is working a bit, but if you want to go more slowly to avoid the agitation, then you could run it by your pdoc. I think the "target dose" is 200mg. If you get a therapeutic effect from lower doses, then I would way the side effects with the benefits. I wouldn't mind upping my dose to 250mg right now. It might not give my bad side effects since my body has adjusted to it for awhile.
Anything would beat what I've felt with other AD's.Keep in touch and take care,
Katy
poster:fluffy
thread:269540
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031021/msgs/272288.html