The perfect bipolar graph...does it exist?

I remember once readin about someone discovering they had bipolar, she kept a graph and after a while her husband commented that it was a perfect sine wave.

Does that acutally happen? Or are peoples graphs more erratic? If someone has experianced a textbook bipolar graph please share!

This is my chart. I wouldn't say it was a perfect sine wave, but it does tend to follow a pattern.

I'm not sure I understand your question, so I was wondering if you could answer it for me if I show you my charts?


LOL.... except I can't copy and paste them, what the...? How did you do it?

Here is my chart. I finally broke up with boyfriend of 9 months so that is why things are so down in the dumps the last couple of days.

Jester - As you make a post you have a check button that says share my chart - click that.

My mood swings were a similar pattern, highs of 3 months lows of 3-4 months. Now I never know what mood I'll be in when I wake thanks to the meds. But things never seem to go as bad as they used to so that's ok.

I've recently had a period of stress and missed meds and changed meds and so I'm a mess at the mo.

As you can see Sometimes I'm stable with just a hint of wave.

I will try again ; )

sigh, no chart showed up...

December 2008

November: I couldn't log b/c my PC/net was down...
I also forgot to take my meds for a bit : (

and finally OCT...

what do my charts mean to you? I'm new at this and want to be more pro-active with my pdoc

Hi Jester!

Although I've been using moodtracker since August, I only discovered the forum today.

My unprofessional opinion is that your mood swings need to be stablized a bit more. But it has not been a full 6 weeks since your last med adjustment so it is too soon to make any adjustments. You may yet stablize from the last adjustment.

Do you share your charts with your pdoc? How severe were your cycles before meds? Do you exercise daily? Are you considered rapid cycling BP2?

K

December 23rd I began regular exercise program.

Can anyone tell me how I stop getting emails re: forum notifications? LOL...
I know how to get here now and no longer need the "shortcut" : )

THX!!

LOL Kev... do u get time to eat between all those meds :-p

Can you believe that I never even liked to take an aspirin? I take about 20 pills in the morning and another 20 pills at night. Ideally some of them should be taken at lunch, but I kept forgetting to take them. About once or twice a week I honestly don't even feel like taking all my pm pills.

I believe if I had the money to buy (or even better yet - raise myself) all organic food, then about 75% of my pills would not be necessary. And even though insurance doesn't pay a penny for supplements, it still costs way less than prescription meds. I spend less then $80 per month.

And my moods are much more stable than any of the prescription med combos I've attempted so far.

Well you seem stable, according to your chart.. I don't even like taking the one I'm supposed to. I even went as far as cancelling out the one in the afternoon..

Heres mine. My pdoc and I are doing med adjustments so I am all over everwhere. I am also chasing the elusive concept--what is baseline anyway?" If you are diagnosed with something you have probably had all your life but just put a diagnostic name to recently--have you ever had a baseline?

And heres the other month

I too struggle with knowing what baseline is. I've had mood cycles my whole life. In the past what I would have considered to be my baseline I now believe is slightly elevated. (It would be great to just get 5 hours of sleep and wake up happy, focused and excited about accomplishing a long list of daily goals with a bounce in my step and a smile on my face no matter what obstacle I meet.)

I now consider baseline where I can wake up and just WANT to be productive. Sometimes I'm tired because of limited sleep but at least I WANT to do something. So my motivation level is the major indicator that I use.


K

-sigh-

my chart looks like a rollercoaster :S

You're not the only one, Jennyxpenny! Don't get disheartened ^_^

--

I thought that mine might turn out to have an even cycle but this recent elevation is going on a lot longer than expected. And yes, I too search for the elusive concept of baseline, and often it is confused with Mildly Elevated. I also have trouble categorizing the times where I feel neither manic nor depressed, just numb (although those usually tend to go down into depression slides quickly) because I call those my "flatline" days (as opposed to Baseline)

Read somewhere today that you get so used to being "elevated", that when you are in fact at baseline, you feel like you're down in the dumps. I am horribly bored with absolutely everything, numb just like you, where I could actually sit the entire day and do nothing, say nothing and think nothing.

Also trying to find the cycle to more or less know what to expect, but its just even more confusing.. Only my first month now, so we'll see what happens... I'm tired of this now..

I don't think there's any perfect rolling graph, but I've noticed a few times where my chart seems to look more stereotypical. I don't tend to get as high or as low with being on the meds that I'm on, but obviously still have a lot of mood shifts. I've always been rapid cycling though, and I don't expect any med is going to change that...

This chart showing the first quarter of 2008 kind of gives a feel for how it goes up and down though. I like using the quarterly charts to get an overview of how my moods have been over a period of time.

And just for boredom's sake, this is this month. I've been in a sustained hypomanic state pretty much since early January now with a few short periods where things have seemed close to baseline, then shifted up again.

I think it takes a while prefect tracking your moods. First you gotta understand what you're feeling at that moment or for the day and then enter your mood. I'm using this to distinguish between how I'm feeling and to see if something triggers me to go one way or the other. For example I had listen than 5 hours of sleep and it sent me into a full-blown manic state. I'm still learning how I feel and how to track my moods. I don't think it matters what your graph looks like as long as you're learning something from it.

I'm horrible about tracking my moods too....sigh...I always forget! Mostly because I want to do them later in the day so I've seen how I feel and then forget to do them...

I just started tracking in late January and was very surprised to see the lows right before and during my period this month. I also have more anxiety at that time. I don't know if it happens every month. I'll keep an eye on it. If it does then I can put at least part of my BP down to PMS.
As for baseline...What an elusive concept.

Mooks,

I definitely have mood fluctuations in relationship to my period. It is very, very easy to see. There is some literature out there about the interplay between hormones and mood stability. Bipolar women tend to have mood swings in relation to their cycle that are more pronounced than women who do not have bipolar disorder. It is a time of vulnerability that we simply need to be aware of what to expect and have some strategies in place with which to cope.

My mood fluctuations are so bad that we are currently working on trying to stop my period through the use of continuous birth control. So far, we have not been terribly successful. My period has broken through the pill with both types of pill that we've used. I don't know what the next step is. I just know that I can't deal with become an out-of-control, sometimes suicidal maniac for two or three days each month.

Be well,
Jules

I just stsrted on this website today, i recently found out I have ciclothima, my mood sweings are very bad but i never been hispitalized and never had a bad manic ephisod. I'm always more depressed or have mixed mood which I consider so bad cause i do sales and I'm so negative that I cannto work. Let's see for the next couple months what my chart says about me. I'm changing meds also. I'm on lexapro and topamax which makes me very stupid as you can see my speling.