Posted by barbaracat on June 13, 2005, at 19:36:29
In reply to Re: bipolar sleep problems, posted by yesac on June 13, 2005, at 11:14:03
**You're on the right track. If lithium is helping even somewhat, that's as good as a formal diagnosis, as far as I'm concerned. People who don't need lithium don't respond very well to it. And I'd take the blah couch-potato life sucks type of depression any day to the above WITH anxiety, agitation and panic attacks.
All you probably need at this point is a small dose of an antidepressant that agrees with you. Remember, lithium augments ADs and vice versa so you won't need as much to start so don't let anyone talk you into taking the 'standard' dose of an AD. Just my humble opinion, but my circuits have been fried too many times and I didn't know why.
Bipolars are very sensitive to SSRIs, as you know. We need just a smidge to start and increase from there. I'm having wonderful results with Cymbalta but I only take 6mg vs the 30mg standard dose. Good luck to you. One thing about us mood challenged folks - we're a tenacious lot. - Barbara
> Yeah, in the past 2 or 3 years I've started to wonder about the bipolarity thing, mostly because I wasn't having any success with antidepressants, and because of the extreme agitation that I experience. I resisted even just having a diagnosis of depression... but at this point if I was diagnosed as bipolar I probably wouldn't mind that much. I almost feel as though I'd be more comfortable telling people I'm bipolar just because it feels a little bit more accurate to me than unipolar.
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> I certainly have never had any kind of full blown manic episode, and I don't expect that I ever will, but I do experience these other more hypomanic types of symptoms. But also I've never ever felt *good*. If anything, it's always been more of a mixed state type of thing, really extreme irritability and agitation without any kind of happiness or euphoria or elated mood. And I'm not sure that it's episodic exactly... it's more like chronic, waxing and waning, but never really going away.
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> Oh well. I know in the end it's not the diganosis that matters, but more the treatment that happens to work, regardless of what my diagnosis is. And I think that with the lithium, I might be on the right track... but it's going to take more work (and unfortunately more drugs) to feel better, because I still don't feel very good at all. It just seems like lithium has reduced my depression to a more *normal* type of depression, without all the crazy, hyped up, activated feelings.
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poster:barbaracat
thread:509410
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050611/msgs/512240.html