I want to be more up than down and I never have an equal balance. So I say go for manic. I will see my doctor in a couple of days and I want to know if anyone here has any suggestions. I am currently on Lamictal and a nerve medication. He added another one that seemed to lift me up a lot, but the side effects were horrible–Ambilify–I think I spelled it correctly. Anyway, what is another good one similar to it or one that will keep my mood up and give me energy?

What causes death from Bipolar Depression?
There is this guy who died from bipolar depression! He use to go to my sister’s college! Last week my sister saw him in college and he was talking to his friends and he was fine!

Bipolar disorder is a difficult illness to manage and to treat. Many who have it may ask themselves, “Why me? What caused all this?” There are great disagreements as to the causes of bipolar disorder. They all tend to go back to the old nature/nurture controversy. In other words, does a thing happen to a person because of who he or she is, or because of the environment he or she grew up in?

Read the rest of this entry

A relative has recently been diagnosed with this and he has taken medication for 2 weeks with no result. Will he ever be normal again? What causes it? Will he always have to take medicine? He does not think he has a problem.

I’ve seen the chart, for depression, where there isn’t enough of a certain cell or something, so people get depression.

But I’m curious about what it is that’s going on inside the mind with bipolar disorder that is causing it.

The cause of bipolar disorder is unclear, but hereditary, biological, and psychological factors may play a part. For example, the incidence of bipolar disorder among relatives of affected patients is higher than in the general population and highest among maternal relatives. The closer the relationship, the greater the susceptibility. Children with one affected parent have a 25% chance of developing bipolar disorder; children with two affected parents, a 50% chance. The incidence of this illness in siblings is 20% to 25%; in identical twins, the incidence is 66% to 96%.

Read the rest of this entry