Posted by detroitpistons on March 17, 2006, at 11:22:58
In reply to Re: Never thought I'd hear this....., posted by Sobriquet Style on March 17, 2006, at 11:08:40
Hi,
I've been taking Lamictal along with Effexor, and I don't feel flat at all. Perhaps this is just because the Lamictal didn't completely eliminate the hypomania, and I'm still in an "up" phase.
> >For me, personaly, what I didn't like about the bipolar diagnosis was that the mood stabalizers just left me flat.
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> This is very common with anyone suffering from bipolar disorder - the flat effect. Many people report that their mood is left flat with treatment for bipolar dioorder, whether it be Bipolar 1, 2 3, or whatever it maybe suggested the type is.
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> I think this because some view this as a side effect. Personally I view this as "the effect" in so far as with manic depression, one of differences with the illness compared with other illness is the cycling. The person may cycle in days, but more often the cycles of depression will last months. The hypo/mania's usually last not as long as the depressions, sometimes days. Everyone different. But the flat effect is common.
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> I think this is because science has looked at manic depression similar how one would a graph when looking at the mood swings. They see the up and down nature of the cycles and so with the drugs used today they have flat-lined it.
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> I think in the general population of people without psychiatric illness, many do not always feel flat. Especially not on a dialy basis. Unfortunately for those with bipolar disorder the remission of symptoms that come with the use of a mood stabilizer, means that the flat effect is the way the medication works to make the patient "normally mentally fundctioning" Like I say though, normal people do not experience flat effects of their emotions, in the same way manic depressives are not genetically geared up for it either.
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> The first line medications which are considered the best because they can stop cyling, are also the ones that cause the worst kind of flat effect in my opinon. Now, does the future hold a treatment with the same level of effect that can stop the cyling without the flatness? If I invested in pharmaceuticals, I'd certainly invest in that bipolar medication..
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> ~
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poster:detroitpistons
thread:620137
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060315/msgs/621284.html