Sertraline and suspected mild bipolar?

Welcome Sapphire,

It is common for some people to go into a hypomanic state triggered by an antidepressant. It's good that you are having an assessment, bipolar disorder can be difficult to diagnose. I was treated for depression for 20 plus years, following a bad post partum depression. For all those years the doctors tinkered around with anti depressants. I didn't help matters, as I took off or dissappeared when I got hypo or full out manic. I can't blame the doctors, they only had half the picture.

How long will the assessment take?  My experience has been that the Shrinks use mood stabilizers for bipolar and add other drugs accordingly. It might be useful to keep a simple journal for you meds and moods. There are a variety of free mood tracker records on the internet. I have found mood records very helpful to use with doctors or to go back and read myself (I have two years worth on the computer and I learning how to catch early triggers.

I wish you well, keep us posted.

In  answer to your question - I can only address things from my experience. Maybe I wasn't clear. First I was diagnosed width major depression, following a post partum depression in 1974.  Over the years I was hospitalized with major depressions and treated accordingly. After all those years of being treated for depression I was finally diagnosed with bipolar disorder ( after a long and thorough assessment). 

I am familiar with how antidepressants can be a trigger for me, affecting mania or hypomaniia. There are some ADs that don't seem to affect me much.

The same thing happened to me. I was diagnosed with severe depression and prescribed Sertraline, and referred to a psychiatrist. Almost immediately I felt great and had some sweet hypomanias before my first appointment with the psychiatrist, who diagnosed me with bipolar. The psychiatrist said that it is a common occurrence for monotherapy with antidepressants to kick off maniacs in bipolar patients. He added quetiapine and lamotragine to stabilize moods and life was fine.

I had no problems or symptoms when I was diagnosed bipolar at 14. My mom took me to a psychologist bc I was withdawing from friends after I had been raped by several friends at a party & then moved. I was given a multiple choice test & viola! All the sudden, just bc of the way I answered, I was now all the sudden bipolar! I eas sent to an outpatient program at the local psyc hospital & immediately forced to take Prozac. It produced hypomaniac symptoms & so Litium was added. I was forced to take thay combo until I was 18. Felt like a zombie the whole time. So, at age 18, I quit taking both meds cold turkey. Well, no one had EVER warned me of tje dangers of that & I experienced a full blown mania that lasted a few weeks.

In my opinion, I believe I wasn't bipolar before the meds. I think that them giving that to me while my body was developing at ages 14-18 ( the mosy critical time for brain & healthy emotional development), caused my body to become dependant on those chemicals. I have recently read a study that many people have discovered & experienced becoming bipolar after the use of antidepressants.

Hope this helps.

I like some others on here was on antidepressants for many years before I was diagnosed with BP. It was only through having my first manic episode that it was discovered. That was over 10 years ago and I praise God I've never had another one since. I'M on Lithium second time around..I was put on it straight after being diagnosed in the hospital I kept on it for 5 years and with the help of my doctor weaned of it. After a few years I got depressed and was put back on Lithium..recently from last year my mood went really low and my psychiatrist gave me Sertraline which hasn't helped so she added in Lamotrogine just lately.

.I have picked up somewhat but still not back to fully being me as yet. Its such a long wait when increasing doses when your BP as they're afraid of you going high.

So its a long haul as the dosages are started very low and increased slowly..very frustrating .

I get browned off waiting to be me again.

Hi Sapphire,

So glad that mood tracker works for you, I've found it a wonderful tool. It's been very helpful, I can go back over a year and look at my moods, meds etc. Very helpful.