Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.

deleted_user
I have always been a moody person, going from low to high, never really in the middle, but never too low and never too high and never really affecting me too negatively up until about 3 years ago. I have always done exceptionally well in school and have been involved in everything, so after doing shitty my 2nd semester in school and becoming somewhat anti-social my family became very concerned (no one else was) and after seeing a psychiatrist I was diagnosed last summer as having MDD. I went on wellbutrin 150, which immediately sent me into moderate hypomania (first feeling of this ever), cleaned my families entire house..mom wasn't complaining. I leveled off after a couple weeks and felt ok for a month and a half, after some brief periods of lethary i upped the dosage from 150 to 300, which helped for about a month. Since then which was mid november of '06 my mood cycles have become twice as rapid as before, and 5x as severe on the depression side compared to before taking the meds. This past august after a really down summer (still on well 300mg) i went to see another psych and he diagnosed me as having a mild case of bipolar 2 with pronounced depressive symptoms and added lamictal with the wellbutrin, since adding the lamictal, up to 200, now I have experienced actual full blown hypomania for the first time, 2 or 3 days where i literally felt like superman, nothing dangerous, just way too hyper and active. this has cycled through about 4 times now in the last 3 months, always resulting in a major major depressive crash, which i'm in now. Today my doctor and i decided that we're going to try tapering off the wellbutrin and trying just the lamictal, thinking that maybe the wellbutrin is the problem. After doing some research on the cyclothymia, and remembering exactly what i told the first doctor, I fit every criteria for it and see no reason why i shouldn't have initally been diagnosed with it, even if I'm not. I've also been really bothered by the BPII diagnosis, because i literally cycle sometimes from hour to hour, not every 3 months.
Has anyone had this experience, where taking an anti-depressant and mood stabilizer actually made things worse, and then finally stabilized when they got rid of the AD? I guess what I'm asking is, has anyone been misdiagnosed BPII and turned out to be cyclothymic? which i know are very close to each other, but from what i've read the cyclothymia can usually just be controlled with just a mood stabilzer. Also, i've read that the cyclothymia can develope in BPII or BPI, has anyone had this experience? Also, can BPII turn into BPI?
Sorry for being so verbose in all my posts, it's all very new to me, and the past year has sent me and my family into a tailspin, I'm sure you can all relate. Thank you, and thank god for this forum you people are really great.
Has anyone had this experience, where taking an anti-depressant and mood stabilizer actually made things worse, and then finally stabilized when they got rid of the AD? I guess what I'm asking is, has anyone been misdiagnosed BPII and turned out to be cyclothymic? which i know are very close to each other, but from what i've read the cyclothymia can usually just be controlled with just a mood stabilzer. Also, i've read that the cyclothymia can develope in BPII or BPI, has anyone had this experience? Also, can BPII turn into BPI?
Sorry for being so verbose in all my posts, it's all very new to me, and the past year has sent me and my family into a tailspin, I'm sure you can all relate. Thank you, and thank god for this forum you people are really great.
Posts You May Be Interested In
-
theatre and I are there already. I'm having a very berry tea with crackers, cheese and cherry tomatoes and she's having a joint with some beer and we're both on really comfy recliners on thick pile carpet. we need some help with the decor if anyone is around??
-
I'm trying to exercise daily. I was doing fairly well until I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago but now I'm getting back on the horse. Today I walked over a mile with my arm weights that are about 22lbs total. I was out of shape and it was hard on my arms. I also did my 30 situps. I'm also going to drink a lot of water and try to eat healthy. I do tend to have a sweet tooth but I'm cutting...
Anyhow.. As the disease has progressed and I never took any AD;s EVER I became BP2 Now BP1 well mostly I still cycle more quickly then most however the LOWS are incredibly LOW the Highs incredibly High and the energy to function when Low is so low I can sleep 15+ hours a day!!!! When I am high I went 2 weeks on less then 2 hours sleep if you could call it sleep I was in REM or even worse Lucid Dreaming not sleeping not awake yet aware of the world and still dreaming but bringing the world into the dream...
Yeah that sucked TOO!!!
So, I say give up on labels if a med works great if not try something else.
What you describe in your first couple of sentences sounds very much like cyclothymia.
However, it is also true that BP in general tends to worsen over time.
So it is not so easy to tell if it was the meds that stirred things up or not.
It is common for antid's to kick-start an episode of mania. That is how some people get diagnosed with BP when they originally had a diagnosis of major depression.
BPI can also be controlled with just a mood stabilizer, if it works for that individual...it all depends on how each person responds to medication.
Overall, I do not think the meds can permanently worsen anyones' bipolar symptoms. If they are worsened by meds, they should also lessen again when the meds are changed back. It all takes time, though, to both build up in your system, and to be completely metabolized out of your system...so the BP symptoms, if increased by the meds, also may take a while to balance back out.