bipolar ??

[CoDieNOmore]

I'm doing treatment for stage 3 melanoma and the treatment cause mood swings and depression. They have even told me I might be bipolar but we are going to wait till my treatment is over to see if my moods will level out. I think my moods have always swung to some degree but not this extreme. One thing that I have noticed while on treatment is I will become obsessed about something... read everything I can get my hands on the subject for a few days.... maybe even buy books on it...... But in a few days or a week or two I'm on something new and off and running with the new whatever.... Has anyone ever gone through this and does this fit into bipolar??

I have always dealt with depression but for some reason the idea of bipolar scares me. I don't know why that is....

[Silla]

I have bipolar disorder, and I get caught up in obsessions like that pretty regularly. I've heard a lot of similar stories from others with bipolar.
I'll get hyper focused on one thing, and research it to death and immerse myself in it, and then all of the sudden the obsession is over. One example is: there was a small man-made island off the lake where my city is and I was so obsessed with that island that I slept over there and tried to come up with plans to live on that island. My fixations tend to come on when I'm nearing the manic end of the spectrum. Something will just strike me and I'll immerse myself in it and probably spend too much money on it until suddenly one day it doesn't matter anymore and I leave things unfinished and move on to the next project.

I hope the treatment you're on goes well for you. I can't say whether you are bipolar or not, but they're right in waiting to see if the treatment is causing it. I understand the fear of bipolar, it's an overwhelming diagnosis at first, but it can be managed with medication and proper care of yourself. You learn so much about what makes you tick. Bipolar made it possible for me to know myself more intimately than I would without.

[CoDieNOmore]

Thanks for the info... I think I might have it to a lessor degree when I'm off treatment. What kind of side effects do you get with the bipolar meds??
Thanks!!

[nandm]

I too am bipolar. I have found that the more I learn about it the less fear I have regarding the diagnosis. There appear to be ways to live a fairly normal life with the disease. A good book I found is "The bipolar handbook". There are exerpts from it in the thread "Interesting bipolar facts". There is also some of the medicine info there as well. I will be posting some more on the meds over the next few days as I have time. Hope that helps

[Silla]

side effects vary from person to person. I can tell you the side effects I get but they won't necessarily be the ones you get. I'm on lamotrigine, wellbutrin, risperidone and seroquel and the last two are possible weight gainers but I haven't gained any weight. Lamotrigine is usually pretty mellow on the side effects, all it gave me were some crazy dreams when I first started it. I had to move verrry slowly with increasing that one. Risperidone and seroquel both made me feel really tired and fuzzy when I first started taking them. It felt like my thinking was just slowed down. That wore off in a week or so I think, after the final increase. It doesn't bother me now. I don't think I get any side effects from the wellbutrin. Right now I only notice minor annoying ones - like I can't come up with the right words, or I stumble over what I'm saying - the rest have worn off with time. I think I'm on the lucky side, that way. Then again, I don't think I'm quite on the right meds - they don't seem to be quite effective enough right now.

All in all, what I have to say may not be what you experience at all. Different meds do different things to different people.

[CoDieNOmore]

Thanks......
I have been on so many meds off and on in my life for many different reasons. I'm on wellbutrin right now because it is said to have less sexual side effects but it's still causing issues in that department.