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bipolar effective disorder

Posted by safferchic on July 21, 2007, at 3:35:11

Hi,
up until last year, I had no idea I was suffering from bipolar effective disorder. I struggled for ten years undiagnosed, but then presented with severe depression in 2003 and was given SSRI's all of which had an awful effect on me. I nearly suicided while on Zoloft.

Last year, my G.P diagnosed me with Bipolar II. I am very lucky to have such an astute doctor.

Bipolar effective disorder is subtle, but not at all uncommon, you know. Very difficult to diagnose as most patients tend to present when they are depressed, not in the phase of hypo-mania. I come from an alcoholic home and the Australian drug and alcohol board recently released stats that said 25% of all people with this particular "soft" bipolar come from drug and alcohol affected homes. That is just a massive statistic! I am also seeing an excellent therapist through the public system here.

Meds:

My doctor originally gave me zyprexa, but that made me incredibly tired and hit my prolactin glands big time, so I ended up with enormous..um...breasts. They were very painful too and when I went back to see my doctor for another appointment she said that if we didn't get me off zyprexa right away I'd start LACTATING. This is one of the strange but true side effects of zyprexa. It hits some but not others.

After that she tried me on a teeny tiny dose of Seroquel which works beautifully for me- 100mg before bed. I suffered terrible hypo-mania in the form of insomnia, which didn't help my anxiety at all. After about 6 months on just the Seroquel, though, I bottomed out and she put me on tegretol.

This is a mood stabilizer and I'm sure many here are familiar with most of these drugs. If not, you can go to crazymeds.org it is a not-for-profit site in plain language, listing all the really important information about every drug imaginable.

Tegretrol is used as an anti epileptic too. The side effects were pretty full on. I felt unable to move or think properly or quickly for weeks on end and had to stop university for a year. It was a good choice to make as it helped me titrate onto the lowest dose of this drug. It is not an easy drug to take but the choice we have as people who suffer from mental illness is this: which is worse? The side effects or the illness. My side effects have subsided dramatically now.

Side effects are: the need to sleep for way longer than normal. Anyone on mood stabilizers or anti psychotics will tell you this. The lack of motivation can be really bad. I trained myself to be up and out of bed by a certain time or I would just go back to sleep for another 3 hours or so. This is getting better too. I still am very groggy when I wake up and recently, my mother-in-law commented on how bad it was, until I reminded her that I was on meds for bipolar!

If you want to talk more about what bipolar is, or bipolar effective disorder, I really am here for you.

Knowing exactly what my diagnosis is, working with a good psychiatrist and a good GP is like a revelation to me!


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poster:safferchic thread:770845
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070719/msgs/770845.html