Any alcohol or drug is going to affect your meds. It's all chemicals. And, it's a delicate balance your Pdoc tries to achieve. You put in rec. drug chemicals, it's gonna F**k you up.
Way back when before I knew better, I would drink alcohol and smoke pot while on meds. No wonder I'd end up in deep depressions. I haven't done that for years and have had 6 years of stability after.
So the question is - why do you use rec drugs?

Yeah.Same as you.I was doing drugs.All sorts.I didn't even notice the onset of the mania till I was hospitalised.
I had all the answers but in the wrong order for me to make others see.I was faster than light.

I don't know if my symptoms intensified when I was using. However, I do know that when I would be depressed a bunch of fat, gator lines of coke would make me all manic. Then, when I wanted to come down, I would drink until I passed out. I almost think that those drugs work better the drugs I am currently taking. God, a nice line would hit the spot today.

oooh yes. i've finally stopped doing this. it was my form of self-medicating. my entire body would go numb and i would be convinced that i wasn't real...

I drink a few cold ones with the boys, and I feel it the next day! Can't mess with Meds.

Big time. I used alot of cocaine which I know messes with your head also drinking to heavy. Alot of people wonder which problem came first. Alot of us self medicated until w found out we were BP

Makes ya wonder how many people were Bipolar back in the 60's and 70's - seems so many were taking uppers and downers.

When I was doing recreational drugs. It sent me into to mania, full flights of fancy, lightening fast ideas, brilliant creativity. Talking too fast for everyone else and frustrated as they didnt get it. I felt euphoric and sexually charged, but out of control on some level too. Not a good mix drugs and BP.

I have been "self medicating" with pot for years, I don't think it has any negative side effects except for lack of motivation.

as a person in denial - i didt want see the link. weh i got my first panic attack at 29, much as it was extremely scarey, i did nothing - i saw this as pennance, for acid/E teenage years..hit 30 went for speed, drug of choice..aaargh mdma by 35..somewhere in between was coke...regression..I somehow kinda know i was self medicating in a sado machoistic way, always pushing boundaries-testing limits..then i had panic disorder - i liken that to coming up on an e..if u had taken it by choice,you`d be chewing yer face, saying its gonna be a good one! cept i sat tripping on me own for 9 months in a field somewhere in my head..nothing for as far as I could see..and soo cold - with out a doubt it is drug-linked, but i think its screwed up people that perhaps try drugs to escape the boring normality of life, at that point called angst!it normally too late to say dont do it..but its in my nature - sometimes i wonder if i enjoy killing myself ever so slowly - accidental overdose doesnt count? does it? whether they induced/aggrevated or soothed the pain without a doubt its linked..im still warped enough to consider from time to time..im so weak..escapism before lithium..its the age old discovery, im sure drug use wasnt my instigator - my memories think back to age 8.
think nowadays schools spot it quite early..still too late now tho..i dont really have regrets..i kinda knew it would turn out this way..pot still is the only thing to help ease roaring anxiety when it hits..such is life...

as a person in denial - i didt want see the link. weh i got my first panic attack at 29, much as it was extremely scarey, i did nothing - i saw this as pennance, for acid/E teenage years..hit 30 went for speed, drug of choice..aaargh mdma by 35..somewhere in between was coke...regression..I somehow kinda know i was self medicating in a sado machoistic way, always pushing boundaries-testing limits..then i had panic disorder - i liken that to coming up on an e..if u had taken it by choice,you`d be chewing yer face, saying its gonna be a good one! cept i sat tripping on me own for 9 months in a field somewhere in my head..nothing for as far as I could see..and soo cold - with out a doubt it is drug-linked, but i think its screwed up people that perhaps try drugs to escape the boring normality of life, at that point called angst!it normally too late to say dont do it..but its in my nature - sometimes i wonder if i enjoy killing myself ever so slowly - accidental overdose doesnt count? does it? whether they induced/aggrevated or soothed the pain without a doubt its linked..im still warped enough to consider from time to time..im so weak..escapism before lithium..its the age old discovery, im sure drug use wasnt my instigator - my memories think back to age 8.
think nowadays schools spot it quite early..still too late now tho..i dont really have regrets..i kinda knew it would turn out this way..pot still is the only thing to help ease roaring anxiety when it hits..such is life...

PS - think its the "it this all there is" syndrome..

on a bad-positive, i think that a breif encounter with meth decades ago kickstarted me out of depression, so it was actually a good thing. but meth, not so good.
and I know a couple of selfmedicating stoners and I think they find pot useful. But it makes me paranoid if I use too much. Coke, speed, any stimulants and BP= danger danger. Bad, bad, in my view. Asking for trouble.

For the benefit of us in UK.What is meth and how do you take it ?

I know it's crystal meth but it's big over there and very little here