cath04

weird and crazy dreams,

Posted on 09/24/08, 05:11 pm

My wife has been diagnosed with rapid cycling mood disorder quite recently and is on a combination of medication amitryptaline (anti-depressant) been on this for some time for her BPD diagnosis, Sodium Valporate and recently went on Topiramate as a migrain preventative. The Sodium Valporate started helping, still had some ups and downs but slower, then the topiramate which was for something else helped even more. She now still gets the up's (manic phases), but no longer the real lows, she will go from manic to what I would call `normal' no major lows.

However the question we have is, just recently (this last week) she has been on a hyper phase and boy is she getting some weird and scary for her dreams.

Example 1: The other night she had her break at work and went for a lie down - she didn't think she had gone to sleep - she took the cushions off the sofa and threw them to the floor, someone came into the room and left, but left the door open. When she woke up, the cushions were still on the sofa and she was lying on them, and the door was still closed.

Example 2: At some point during last night, I woke up to her going `help, help, help me'. I asked her what was wrong, and she said `someone has put a car on my head, i can't move, help me'. I reassured her telling her I had moved the car, lifted her head up for her so she could tell she could move, moved the pillows under her head properly and she went back to sleep - this incidenct she didn't remember in the morning. Prior to this, just as i had dropped off to sleep, she woke me up saying she had another one of them dreams and told me what it was again I reassured her that everything was ok - but now i can't remember what that one was!

So ultiamtely the question is - does anyone else get these sort of weird almost hallucegenic dreams when they are in manic phase? Is this just something she is going to have to get used to? We have looked up all the medication she is on and none of them show this as a side effect, also looked up interactions between the drugs she is on and there aren't any contraindications.

Any advice appreciated.

• Reply #1 10/14/08  7:39am
  
  ZanyBeeper
  I would say that it almost has to be a drug reaction, but since none of them list it as a possible effect it would be hard to determine as to which one was the culprit. What was the last new thing that was added before she started having these dreams? It could always be a side effect that has not been experienced by none or barely any persons during a clinical trial. I would be curious to know.
• Reply #2 01/18/09  11:02pm
  
  Souxie86
  i sometimes get really horrific, horror type movie, nightmares but i have no idea what causes them. im on sodium valporate also. one of my old friends whos was also bipolar used to get the same dreams as me but she wasn't taking any medication at all... i dunno. i've been wondering for the past couple of years what causes them but i have no idea.
• Reply #3 09/19/09  2:04pm
  
  cath04
  Well she was taken off Topirimate because she started to get non-epileptic abscences 30-50 a day, and we found it contains Aspartame which can trigger these. Since coming off it, the dreams haven't been as bad, so maybe it was this. However the alternative Tegretol isn't working, and in fact seems to be making it worse, so Psych is taking her off it. He wanted her back on Topirimate as it was working brilliantly with the mood swings, however we said we can't due to the abscences caused by the aspartame. We know it was the aspartame as since coming off it and going aspartame free in the diet, the abscences disappeared, as soon as she had some aspartame in her diet they came back!. However psych is hoping that a different type of it won't contain aspartame as she was on the tablets and you can get capsules and liquid. It's looking good as the Capsules contain sucralose, just waiting for definitive response from a pharmacist. We will then have to see if the weird and crazy dreams come back.
  
  
• Reply #4 09/28/09  12:46pm
  
  Tadeo
  My wife also has weird dreams. But she's not on med, she's not even BP.
  
  But I understand, some times normality seams strange. May have been the meds, or maybe have been that late night 'taco',
  
  Be cool man. The more you panic, the higher the dose, the weir it goes, more panic and so on.... Try to stay away from the this ill self-feedback.
  
  Trust in God and in your doctor, leave your feelings and worries aside, she needs you calmed. You don't how much she does need you.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

For those of us who have four or more moods per year or month or week or day or hour or minute...