Bipolar Mood Shifts

Hi Charlie. . I started 3yrs ago quetiapine bt stopped that to go on lithium ..I was told it was the same drug?? Was on sertraline bt stopped that Dec to go on mirtazapine. . I find after a while lithium stabilised my moods .. never high now bt still thoughts of suicide but noway can act on it now..which is a blessing.. mertiapine gave me the lift from depression bt still sometimes feel low .. Iv started recently not seeing any future again.. not able to fall asleep.. .. I need to sort my meds 😢

you sound like your having highs to me ..I miss them so much..

I have cyclothymia, and it can get extreme. Makes you feel like a mental yoyo. My partner says shes often seen my mood change from elated to existentially empty and back to elated before I reach the end of one sentence. More usually I can go thru several 30-90 minute up moods and down moods about half a dozen times across a single day. Makes me feel like I need travel sickeness pills, though I am on 400 mg of quetiapine (300 mg for getting to sleep) and a lot of stuff I don't get off the doctor. Sometimes I am OK for days or weeks then it starts off again. I am diagnosed bipolar 2 and cyclothmic, and also as having substance use disorders though I don't see it that way. Got offered lithium but I wouldn't take it - far too many risks as far as I cant tell, but I guess it all depends on what kind of risks you want to take, and how much you can handle being on a repeated mental bungee jump

What I am learning from the discussion in this forum is that bipolar disorder can be very different for different people and at different stages of life. My first experience of significant mental health issues was at age 28 when I started to get depression and insomnia, triggered by a bad marriage and money problems (isolation). I was diagnosed with depression by my GP and first prescribed amityptilline (hated its grogginess) and later Prozac (didnt do anything at all). I had several bouts of depression over the next decade, but by age 38 I was getting high and low mood problems (days to weeks of each), and a shrink diagnosed me as cyclothymic. I got divorced, a better job, and my life started to get a lot better. But then, for unclear reasons, I started getting lots of episodes of hypomania and serious insomnia with only occasional (once-a-year) bouts of depression. This led to all sorts of conflicts with people (verbal not physical), convictions for drug offences, losing jobs, and big debts. At age 50 I was diagnosed by a new psychiatrist as Bipolar Affective Disorder, Not ElseWhere Specified (BAD NEWS!), and prescribed 400 mg of quetiapine daily (after refusing lithium). I have never been give any psychotherapy or non-drug interventions. But the Seroquel has worked better than anything else - now I can sleep 6 hours a night, I eat once a day, and loved ones are interacting better with me. It also seems to me that people respond quite differently to quetiapine - for instance, I have lost weight (not gained it - I am now skinny), and though my BD symptoms are generally milder, my cyclothymia has gone more rapid, and I can experience major highs and lows several times within the space of a single hour (just not as severe as before).  I'm wondering if other people can relate to that kind of experience?

 

Hi Charlie 

I've been diagnosed with bipolar some years now. For me, it changed during the course of the illness. At one point I remember being manic/hypomanic for LONG periods, then experiencing a sort of burn out period. 

Then, I started to experience more and more depression. Now I seem to cycle but super fast. 

I can be up and down from hour to hour at times. 

I say up, but for me the ups are more irritable and impatient, then I crash and I have to lie down. 

Tonight, for example, I felt like I was going to explode, then I started laughing and crying. It really is a nightmare. I don't take medication because coupled with this I have a fear of medicine. So, it's tough!