Bipolar II

Can't type much, have a baby in hands but I was interested in knowing why were you diagnosed with bipolar 2?

what signs were you showing?

What medications are you on? Are they helping?

What meds have you tried in the past? Why did they not work for you?

what signs were you showing?
I would spend large amounts of money and feel a high from doing it. I also would get very hyper. Most of the time just a day or so after this I would fall into a depression ranging from mild to severe.

What medications are you on? Are they helping?
Tegretrol, Lamictal, Zoloft - I have been pretty stable now for over a year

What meds have you tried in the past? Why did they not work for you?
I been on too many to even be able to list them all. I had various combinations. They would work for a while and then quit. I have gone off and gone back to them zoloft being one. I don't know why they didn't work. But I just kept in communications with my Dr and we made the adjustments where needed. I am currently happy with my combination

Hope this helps for what ever you might be looking for.

Amanda

My highs were of a sexual nature. My lows were associated with my already diagnosed sever depression. i would get agitated/extremely irritated.

Before falling pregnant last year I was taking Trileptal, Lexipro, Wellbutrin...I just re-started Trileptal and lexipro several days ago. They were a good combination for me before and I'm hoping that it will still be, it's a much smaller dose now though so we'll see.
Trilptal, at the dose I was taking it before, knocked me out for the night and I cannot have that now that I have babies depending on me.

The one in particular that didn't work for me was Lamictal. I actually can't remember why it didn't work! It was a couple of years ago.

I guess I wasn't really looking for anything in particulay by asking, I was just curious to see others' experiences with this form of bipolar. :)

why were you diagnosed with bipolar 2? what signs were you showing?

~I was officially diagnosed in 2001 when I graduated college. But looking back I was displaying bi-polar behavior from the age of 9-10. I would light matches. Attempted suicide at the age of 12 and was placed in and out of behavioral facilities. I was arrested for stealing-trying to keep up appearances with my wealthier friends. I was finally able to stabalize myself in school. Once I graduated it was downhill-I started displaying manic-depressive behavior.

What medications are you on? Are they helping?

~I, also, have tried every medicine under the sun. Currently I am on Lamictal and Depakote with an occasional Xanax. It has worked wonders with little to no side effects.

What meds have you tried in the past? Why did they not work for you?

~The most traumatic medicine I tried was Abilify and it almost killed me. I was allergic to the ingredients. My blood sugar shot up to the point that I should have been in a coma. My face and tounge were so swollen I couldn't speak.

My advice: Have a reputable psychiatrist who tests your blood regulary and sends you to other doctors to monitor your health issues. There are a lot of psychiatrists who are just pill pushers and they have the ability to kill you.

brigette
I am currently weening off my meds so I can get pregnant. Did you do any meds at all during pregnancy? Do you have any suggestions or resources you can recommend to help with planning ahead.
Thanks
Amanda

No, I fell pregnant in November 2007 and stopped all medications after seeing my psychiatrist at the beginning of January 2008.

I felt fine (mentally) throughout my pregnancy until the very end when I developed PIH (preeclampsia). And then PPD set in, which I put off doing anything about for nearly 6 months. (I got very frightened when I read that women with a history of bipolar have a higher chance of post partum psychosis...that's where the potential for causing harm to ones self or their baby comes in to play).

I don't have any resources, I'm sorry :(

I was diagnosed July 2006. My hubby found online several sites that gave him the idea that I might be bipolar. I showed all the classic symptoms. My mania was very sexual. I was highly irritable and aggitated. My depressions were suicidal. For that matter, my manias were suicidal alot of the time too. (Those are the scarey ones.)

I am taking Abilify, Effexor XR, and citalopram right now. They are working moodwise. But I hate sleeping 12+ hours a day. Sometimes 15 hours or more. I also hate the weight gain.

I've tried lots of stuff in the past 2 1/2 yrs. Seroquel made me psychotic. Symbyax caused me to gain 11 lbs in one month. Lamictal made me gain 60 lbs over the 1 1/2 yr I took it. But it worked wonderfully then just stopped. Prozac quit working. Xanax, doc took me off. Clonopin, still have for emergencies. Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

Overall, my biggest complaint is memory/brain-function loss. I don't know what caused that, but I can't even read a book anymore and understand it. Makes me very angry.

~BARB~

I talked a little bit about this in the sleep section, so I hope I don't bore y'all to tears.

I was diagnosed when I went a psychiatrist to address my sleep disorder. I was only sleeping a few hours each night. I was suffering terribly from sleep deprivation, and was deeply depressed. The depression was nearly paralyzing. My primary care doc had tried EVERYTHING to get me to sleep through the night. Nothing worked.I could go to sleep, but I could not stay asleep. At one point, she tried me on Trazodone (an AD) to get me to sleep. All it did was make me hypomanic. I wasn't depressed any more... but I still wasn't sleeping.

She sent me to a psychiatrist who took a full mental health history, and during the first session gave me a dx of bipolar II, based initially on two things
1) the fact that the AD made me hypomanic - he explained to me that an AD will not make a "normal" person hypomanic
2) I have a hyperthymic temperament (if you don't know what that is, it might be worth your while to google it)

He explained a concept I had never heard called the "bipolar spectrum" and said that my dx really fell into one of those categories. I am not a true Bipolar II... but essentially have "Bipolar IV." But, because the dx codes have not caught up to the science, I have a formal diagnosis of Bipolar II.

Of course, geekie girl had to go and research it all to make sure he was on the up and up. I couldn't find any holes in his story.

I am currently on:

Tegretol XR 400mg am and 400mg pm
Seroquel 100mg to 300mg pm depending upon how well I'm sleeping
Topamax 100mg am and 100mg pm (to counteract the weight gain of the seroquel)
Celexa 10mg am

I go off of the Celexa in the spring and back on in the fall because I have seasonal fluctuations with my mood. I have to keep the Topamax lower than I would like because higher doses make me stupid. I lose words and names.

So, that's the Reader's Digest Condensed version of my story!!

Be well,
Jules

I have an embarassing question to ask but I need to know if any one is dealing with the same issue I am. The only way to word this is I'm over-sexed. It's like I can't get enough and yes, i am medicated but not working. I'm showing what all I take for meds so if anyone has any ideas please let me know. My boyfriend is getting wore out.
To answer the questions, i was diagnosed after several suicide attempts and being in the hospital several times iwithin a months time. I was manic, hyper sexual, lack of sleep, irritable, moodiness was extreme. At one point I swore to my doc that the cat was talking to me.
I have tried pretty much the whole paharmacy and have been on these for the longest of any meds.

It's the Effexor that's causing it!

WOW...didn't know Lamictal caused weight gain...I think I'll ask to stop it.

As for having the sexed-up part of the manic symptoms, I DID have that before I was on this current combo of meds.
I can't say that the Effexor XR causes that in me. But I'm on 6 meds now...

I WANT TO HAVE BABIES AND FEAR I CAN'T BC OF MEDS???!!! What do y'all have to say about all that?

I used to think I'd have to get off all the meds for 3-12 months b4 I got pregnant just to be safe, but....what's been your experience, people?

Hey Brigette

My biggest sign was obsession. I'm a writer and spend an unhealthy amount of time working on my books. I'm not even published so It's not like I have a dead line. I also obsess about my husband. (I thought that what I was feeling was what everyone feels as love until I got on Tegratal and it stopped. *Scared the heck out of me*) I obsess about a man I have never met, that's rather famous, enough that I would spend days listening to his music non stop and going through interviews he did on the internet. I also have both manic and depressive symptoms of a sexual nature. There are more. I just don't want to bore you all.
Other signs are rapid speech, sleep problems, racing thoughts, suicidal thoughts or ideation and fatigue.
As for medications, that's a tough one. I've been in and out of metal health wards four times now so they can change them and keep me safe and I was usually too loopy to know what I was on. I do know that I have allergies to many and strange reactions to others.
I know Prozac did help for a long time then I got what my pdoc called Prozac poop out. I'm currently on Seroquil, and Tegratal and they are helping a lot but we're still working on the the correct dosage for me.

why were you diagnosed with bipolar 2? what signs were you showing?
Prelim diagnosis was either anxiety disorder or BP2 based on irritability, trouble focusing, and mood swings. Nothing severe enough to interfere with my life, but emotionally trying. Pdoc presscribed a subclinical dosage (12.5mg day) of Zoloft working under the "anxiety disorder" hypothesis but being careful about the possibility of BP2. After 3 days I went into a hypomanic episode, and was diagnosed with BP2 based on that.

What medications are you on? Are they helping?
I was only diagnosed about two months ago. At the moment I'm not on any medications. Because my symptoms aren't as severe as many others, I'm planning on working on self-managing through diet, exercise, and other healthy habits. I also have PCOS (a hormonal disorder), and there has been some research linking PCOS and BP2, there is some indication that maybe by treating the PCOS through blood-sugar regulation it might help the BP2. Still need to explore all that more.

What meds have you tried in the past? Why did they not work for you?
Abilify made me angry and unfocused (what I was trying to treat), Lamictal helped (felt more clear-headed and more considerate/thoughtful of others) but gave me a rash so I had to discontinue. Each of those I just did for a couple of weeks. Last attempt was with Geodon, and it was bad enough that I don't want to try anything for at least a little while. The Geodon knocked me out the first two days and after that I felt foggy and antsy to the point where I was literally pacing in my cubicle and nagging people to give me work to do that I knew I wasn't capable of doing in my current state anyway. I only took the Geodon for three days, and when I went off it I went into a hypomanic episode stronger than what the zoloft triggered, I'm still coming down off of that right now (my 2nd day off of Geodon).
_______________________
Since I'm still trying to understand this disorder and decide how to handle it in my own life it is really good to read other people's experiences. Thank you to those who have shared so far.

Emily,

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that I had the same horrible reaction to geodon. Fortunately I had asked to be hospitalized because of bad reactions to new meds in the past. Within just 24 hours of the first dose I was in agony and most likely would have made a suicide attetmpt to get relief if I hadn't been in the hospital. My mind stopped working so quickly that I didn't even understand that it was the med doing it. I am soooo thankful to the wonderful nurse who clued me in and got me relief instead of yet another dose. A day or 2 later a great therapist explained the reaction to me and after 8 years I finally understood what had happened to me on another med. All that time I had just thought that I had gone insane temporarily.

K