Troublesome Voices?

These are my tips fhat help me live with bp2. I feel like there are two of me, one rational and down to earth, and the other creative, full of ideas, and I guess we all have this it must be our rational and sub conscious minds And some of us are just more sensitive to this. So there I was lying in bed at 4am tonight one mind discussing with the other whether Dr Who could, following the rules, be a woman, and as an alien could he technically transmit a human disease. Eventually I gave in and got out of bed and decided to search for an answer to stopping these rediculous thought chains. I am now calm and before I say more let me tell you my experience with Temazepan. 3-years ago my wife died and bereavement triggered my bp2, I didn't sleep for 10-months. My doctor took me through all the sleeping pills and they all had the inverse effect, I think the bp2 mind fights against tranquilization, and we are all told to avoid antidepressants and anything with steroids, and I can certainly link attacks to steroids myself, even steroid eye drops. Taking higher doses of Tamazepan just got me to sleep, but I was fighting it, the tinnitus was horrendous. What worked for me was cutting the smallest dose 3.7mg in half. This was just enough to get me off and I started getting 2-hours sleep a night.

once I had broken the cycle things slowly improved, but Even this low dose becomes ineffective so I could only use it every other night.

My mother used to hear voices, and see people running out in front of the car. Eventually in her late 80s she started talking about suicide and a psychiatric nurse advised we put her on antipsychotics, which I later found out shortened her life dramatically. I have also read that seeing things can be macular disease, so I now live with the guilt of shortening my mothers life, which was double compounded when I had to decide to put my wife on the same antipsychotics for anxiety when there was no more cancer treatment. So maybe your voices are really your creative sub conscious suggesting that you will get treatment if you self harm. I find the best cure for this is to bring a third person onto the committee, which was my first wife, and is now my second. I woke up in the night once calmly convinced there was no point to life, I dare not close my eyes. Eventually woke my wife and we decided then that I had taken steroids with whisky and hot milk, which was wrong, once a reason was identified I slept. Now I know it was bp2 and steriod pills. Simply don't trust any of your decisions, because self treatment rather than any pills may be a better solution.

We have twin beds pushed together, so that I can get up without disturbing my wife, change bedding when I get hot or cold, or sometimes twitch all night. I get up at 4am like today and make a slow cup of tea, use leaf tea as a ritual, plus couple of digestives and answer a forum. 

No caffeine, no TV after 10pm, avoid the apprentice, watch it on catchup later, I am up at 4am discussing doing their tasks with myself before they are. At work I would talk to myself all the time, so I got an allotment to relieve the stress, played Baddmington, line dancing is great, but don't worry about the voices just keep yourself busy but not exhausted. I have a fitness band, the UP3 by Jawbone shows me my sleep patterns, REM sleep, and steps in the day. I try to improve my deep sleep totals even with getting up at night, 8-hours sleep is a modern condition, in the Middle Ages normal sleep was in several sessions. Whenever I say to myself how great I feel, I start taking the precautions.

sorry about the ramblings, answering you is part of my cure, good luck.

I really have no issue with that Shona praise God, it must be terrible for you I can image.

I get thoughts that roll like a video at times on my head but taking Lyrica helps stop that.

Maybe your doctor or perhaps even better the psychiatrist could recommend something that will help put that to rest for you I do hope so..God willing

Hi Shona. I'm really concerned. Hearing voices isn't a component of bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorder is just a serious mood condition. Hearing voices is typically a major symptom of schizophrenia. Has your doctor talked about this to you? I would think your GP would have recognised this and not just given you some sleeping tablets. Benzodiazepines (temazepam, diazepam, clonazepam etc) are central nervous system depressants. Hearing voices is to do with elevated dopamine levels and benzodiazepines have no affect on this at all. All they do is sedate you and reduce anxiety. Have you seen your psychiatrist lately? You really need to. The crisis team and your GP are not doing their jobs at all. In fact, they are being negligent by not helping you. You need expert input from a psychiatrist. If I were you I would lie to the crisis team and tell them you are going to commit suicide. They might listent to you then and put you on to a health professional who is competent enough to recognise your symptoms as something most likely more than bipolar disorder.