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About Me
EternallyOptimistic
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About Me
I grew up in the shadow of my mother's mental illness, undiagnosed and untreated. She has a delusional psychosis of the paranoid type. She got progressively worse from the time I was about 12 until it pretty much exploded in my face when I was in my early to mid-twenties. I was afraid of her and deathly afraid of mental illness. I stayed as far away from both as I could. That is, until my daughter started having obvious mental disturbances and had to be hospitalized at the age of 14. She was eventually diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder. So as any mom would do, I dived into the murky world of psychiatry and mental illness head first in order to "save" my daughter. No more fear. She has been stable for aproximately 2.5 years after 5 hospitalizations, but has been "slipping" again recently. THAT brings the fear back . . . She's 19 now. And my son is a 20-year old alcoholic. Yes, I could use your support!!
I grew up in the shadow of my mother's mental illness, undiagnosed and untreated. She has a delusional psychosis of the paranoid type. She got progressively worse from the time I was about 12 until it pretty much exploded in my face when I was in my early to mid-twenties. I was afraid of her and deathly afraid of mental illness. I stayed as far away from both as I could. That is, until my daughter started having obvious mental disturbances and had to be hospitalized at the age of 14. She was eventually
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Thank you , I needed to here that. I sometimes feel I am going through this all alone.
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Close Bipolar Disorder
Treatments
- Abilify Not Working
- No change in mental state but lots of weight gain.
- Ativan Working / Worked
- Used in hospital for calming effect. Never used at home.
- Depakote Not Working
- No change what so ever.
- Geodon Not Working
- Made her practically catatonic. Big weight gain which was not supposed to happen.
- Lamictal Working / Worked
- THIS is what saved my daughter and brought her back! This in combination with lithium.
- Lithium Working / Worked
- Works well at 900 mg. in combination with Lamictal.
- Paxil Working / Worked
- Necessary for the OCD.
- Psychotherapy Working / Worked
- So much depends on the therapist you get! We worked through two bad ones before finding a keeper.
- Risperdal Working / Worked
- Used short term, when anti-depressants brought on a manic psychosis. Worked, but bad motor side-effects.
- Support from Friends & Family Working / Worked
- and social services through the school district and the county health department. We pulled together a GREAT team!
- Topamax Working / Worked
- Helped temper the urge to eat brought on my Zyprexa. Used only short term, dr. pulled her off during one hospitalization because "she was on too many meds." He sent her home worse than she went in . . .
- Zoloft Not Working
- Tried, no change.
- Zyprexa Not Working
- HUGE weight gain!! Like5 to 10 lbs. per week! She is STILL working that off, years later.
- Xanax Working / Worked
- Uses as needed now only about once every 2 months!! Yay!
Close Families & Friends Of Addicts
My son, aged 20, has an alcohol problem that is hard for the rest of us to deal with.
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