Bi-Polar......Schmolar! ?? any thoughts?

[ReedyJ77]

I personally hate the term "bipolar". It wasnt around when I was a kid and I had many of the symptoms. However, I have lots of symptoms of other disorders as well. As far as I'm concerned I see it as simply saying "good days (highs), and bad days (lows)." Now for lots of people this is varies quite a bit. I know at least 8 people in my chemical dependancy group that all say they have been diagnosed "bipolar". But all of them are waaaayayyyyy different. Do any of you notice this too.?

Environmental factors are the number 1 cause of many symptoms. Whether it be an unstable home, weather, lack of knowledge, no social structure or maybe even diet. Bi-polar seems to me a miracle term, just like they used to think Prozac (it almost killed me) was a miracle drug. Sorry but I truly feel we are much more complicated than that.

I am 31 years old and have been on just about every drug you can think of. And, nothing worked. Until I saw a Neurologist when I was 16 and he found an irregularity in my brain waves from a sleep deprived EEG. This led to a cocktail of Tegretol, Lithium, Buspar and Disipramine. Wow, this combination kicked ars. My behaviour did a 180 and I was the best kid ever. I took the meds for a few years. When I was 19 I went to a Social Security evaluation.
And because the meds made me act and feel that way, they said. "This person has no need for futher treatment/supplementation"

I wish I could not be this way, and hope one day I will mature out of it. However, this appears at this time I will have to take these meds to the grave. I havent been on them in a while (13 years). So I recognize that medicine has come a long way, but they were saying the same thing when they tried to treat me when I was a kid. So now that I am old enough to take care of myself, I am alone. My wife lives with her parents. The state took our kids away. And the really crappy part. I had to be alone like this to qualify for any kind of testing or treatment. When I fell under my wifes income I didnt qualify for help. BS BS BS BS BS.

I could go on, but maybe your questions and comments will keep me on track better.

Thanks all!!

James

[grateful2b]

Hi James..Welcome to SR..
I am BP2 and have PTSD as well...
I am 60 now and I was only diagnosed 20 years ago but have been Bipolar 2 for most of my life.
I take a low dose of Lithium and deseyrel at night.
When I was first diagnosed, I was on Paxil and later effexor for depression..
I no longer need medication for depression, and I have different strategies , that I use in my life to maintain somewhat of a balance.
Accepting that I am Bipolar 2 and embracing all that , that means, to me has been a huge step in learning to live with Bipolar 2.

[ReedyJ77]

I guess I am not bipolar. My last Bipolar mention in a Psych Eval said Rule out bipolar NOS. Meaning, there wasnt enough criteria met to say I was. Who knows maybe with further evaluation it will come. Thanks for your reply!

[TigerLili]

Mental illness can be very hard to diagnose and treat correctly. My mother was diagnosed as schizophrenic since her teens and was just very recently re-evaluated as having schizophrenic affective disorder. I have been treated for depression all my life and given anti-depressants. Of course they worked to make me feel better because I'm actually bipolar (probably type 1 because I hear voices - pleasant voices, but still voices in my head talking about me eg 'oh look what she's doing now, I wonder what that is she has' etc). Anti-d's tend to trigger off mania in BPs.

I never told anyone like a doctor because the people in the spiritual group I spent time with told me that it was my 'spirit guide' or 'god' and I should just listen to see what they wanted to tell me. I wasn't well enough to know I needed help, plus I am quite highly functioning in my daily life and work. And the voices really aren't distracting or unpleasant. The main problem for me is the ultra highs and the utter lows. I

I'm either the 2nd coming of christ and the angels are singing, or googling the most lethal way to commit suicide etc. From the outside, I look and sound like I have it all together, but I really don't. I am at a point where I have agreed to take medication, to be hospitalised for stability - whatever needs to happen. I can't stay sober if I don't treat the bipolar because when I'm manic, I think that some lovely champagne would be just peachy, then in no time I'm back to getting black out drunk and taking a handful of pills every night.

I hope you get a good diagnosis and treatment plan. I encourage you to research your own symptoms, talk to mental health nurses at a community health centre or whatever - doctors don't know everything. In the early days, I was told the treatment for my depression was to get a hobby. I wanted to throw myself off a bridge, but apparently scrapbooking would fix that. About a year ago I recognised that my good times, my ups, were getting out of hand and my downs were unmanageable and at that point a psychologist diagnosed me, but it's taken me till now to do something about the medication. I'm 38 now.

[historyteach]

Reedy,
The reason that the term "bipolar" wasn't around when you were a kid is because it was called "manic-depressive disorder" then. Now, it's changed again to dipolar spectrum disorder. Medicine, and medical terms, like many things, are constantly evolving as knowledge is gained about how the mind works. Many people don't recognize the new terms as being the same illness.

I wish you well. I agree it can be very difficult to diagnose and treat. It's criminal how our ineffective medical system tears families apart in order to get treatment! Hopefully, this new administration will deal with this travesty.

Shalom!

[ReedyJ77]

me too! It's been hard, considering my current circumstances. I want to be well no matter what I have to do. But as a child it was very hard to deal with knowing that these preliminary diagnoses led to my near death. Due to the mental health profession treating me with drugs they now consider only fit for adults.

I spent a month in the hospital from unknown reasons at the time. Three weeks into my stay they found that my spleen was covered in sores and had it removed. The pathologist said it looked like a spleen from a "drug addict". I was only 11 years old.

Only thing we can figure out now is that immediately before this happened I was on Prozac. My script was stopped when it ran out because I wasnt improving in any way.
Shortly there after I came ill with a 104.8 temp and Haemoglobin dropping about 3g an hour. I was going to die. Thankfully I had the best treatment available, since my Grandfather built the hospital I was taken to.

There is still no definate reason this happened to me. All I can figure out is that it may have been a Serotonin Toxicity issue. Through much research I found this to be most likely, considering the spleen metabolizes Serotonin. It was very traumatic, and is why I have tried everything in my power to not be medicated.

And not to mention I could be wrong, Doctors have not wanted to explore the ideas, or causes. For some reason they dont want to be involved.

Now I must take the gamble. I have to try it again. Hopefully this time I will benifit and my immunocompromised state will not cause more problems. Overall my fear is hard to deal with, It's all I can think about when approaching a doc for medication.

Oh and incidently, I dont think they knew about this side effect when it happened to me. Prozac was released in 1988, I got sick in 1989.

[grateful2b]

wow, James, you've really been through it..I really appreciate your level of fear regarding meds and Docs..

wishing you the best, as you move forward and good for you for facing your fears and putting your mental health first.