Uncategorized « Straight Talk on Managing Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar and Recovering from a Hosptial Stay

Bipolar and Recovering from a Hospital StayMood swings are pretty terrible mentally, but they also affect the body physically. I remember when my partner Ivan got out of the hospital after three months. He was just so tired. His body was tired and he needed a lot of time to recover. My mother was on a plane ride during that time and happened to talk to a doctor sitting next to her. She told him about Ivan and the doctor said, “It can take up to a year for someone to get back to where they were before they got so sick.” None of us wanted to believe this! But it was basically true. The good news is that Ivan completely got back to normal sooner than a year, but it was a tough year for sure! It has been thirteen years since then. That seems impossible! He still deals with a lot of mood [ Read More ]

Just Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder?

Then yo are at the right place. I remember very well when I was diagnosed. I was 31 and had just come down from a mild manic/psychotic episode after a manic trip to China. I was misdiagnosed with depression, and then finally got the bipolar diagnosis. I was actually very happy to finally know what was going on!

I always want to say congratulations when I hear that someone has a diagnosis. Not because I think having bipolar is something to cheer about. It’s not. It sucks. But I say congratulations because you at least know what you have and there is a lot of help out there to treat it. It didn’t used to be that way. Believe me! I was diagnosed with rapid cycling Bipolar II in 1995, one year after my partner at the time was diagnosed with Bipolar I. [ Read More ]

OCD and Bipolar Disorder

I have experienced OCD for most of my life, but I never really understood the term technically.

Many people with bipolar disorder have OCD symptoms, especially under stress. I know that my OCD obsessions come from dating situations, travel and work stress that puts me under too much pressure.

What is OCD?

The initals say it all- Obsessions that lead to compulsions that become a disorder when they affect a person’s ability to lead a ‘normal’ life.

Obsessions are thoughts- compulsions are the actions a person does to calm the obsessions.

For example, if a person has the thoughts- “I left the stove on. I left the stove on. Oh my god I left the stove on. My house will burn down. I left the stove on. I left the stove on.” the compulsion to calm the thoughts is to go back to the house to check that the stove is not on. Then [ Read More ]

Bipolar Episode on Law and Order Television Show

My brother just called and said there was an excellent episode of Law and Order- an extremely popular crime TV show here in the US- that addressed bipolar disorder. One of the detectives had trouble with his daughter and thought she was on drugs, it turned out she was manic. Oh yes, some of us have been there.

I didn’t catch the show. It’s great to see bipolar disorder handled correctly in the media. It took long enough!

Julie

Bipolar Rapid Cycling: A mood swing record?

Five mood swings in one day!

I doubt that is a record, but it sure wears me out. In that past week, I’ve had at least 20 mood swings. They are mild, but certainly strong enough to chart. Yesterday I had three distinct upswings. The day before that, I had a few upswings and an intense hour long downswing where I immediately started crying. I’ve also been twitching a lot which means there is something not right with my Lamictal dose.

What is causing this rapid cycling? Though I’m glad it’s on the manic side instead of being constant depression, I know it’s not good for me. I can feel my adrenaline pumping and I feel like jumping out of my skin. The chemicals are racing through my brain much faster than they normally do. I feel like [ Read More ]

Abilfy and Lamictal Side Effect: Akathisia

I’ve been on both Abilify and Lamictal. Abilify if an antipsychotic used to treat psychotic bipolar symptoms as well as mania. Lamictal is a ‘mood stabilizer’ that’s actually an anticonvulsant drug used to treat bipolar depression. It’s not a drug used to manage mania. But, it does help people with rapid cycling.

Abilify is an atypical antipsychotic along with Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa. Atypical means the drugs are newer and have less side effects than the older ‘dirty’ drugs such as Thorazine and and Haldol.

I’m having some tough side effects with my Lamictal tonight and they remind me of what my friend Sherri went through when she was on Abilify.

We both had restlessness, leg pain, an uncomfortable body and trouble sleeping. This is called Akathisia. Technically it’s an inability to sit down. Abilify is known to have this as a side effect, whereas my Lamictal problems tend to be from not having enough [ Read More ]