I know a woman that is Bipolar and she’s 47-years-old. She is on a Bipolar medicine that makes her want to take drugs that she’s never taken before. That’s a side effect; she isn’t a druggie or anything. What can she do? It’s pretty much the only Bipolar medicine that works for her. Does anyone know the name of the medicine? Her psychiatrist knows.

I was diagnosed with bipolar, which sucks and I thought I was normal….screwed up childhood I guess. BUt what is something I can take that I will not become dependent on?

I was recently diagnosed as bipolar and everything they put me on causes me to gain weight. Does anyone know of anything that will not cause this? Please share. I’m desperate.

I have a son who is doing his Ph.D. in the US. He is taking the mood stabilization drug sodium valporate prescribed by an Indian Doctor and continued by another Nepali, mental doctor. He is highly intelligent and can apply himself very intensely to anything, has a history of mild drug addiction and very vulnerable to addiction of any kind. I am here in Nepal and always worried about his mental frame. Right now he seems quite happy and stable, but a slightest disturbance can upset him. The doctor who was treating him here advised him to carry along the medicine for at least 6 months and consult a doctor and if you feel fine can quit the midicine. I would like to know what are the chances of relapse once he gets completely alright and quits the drug?

Has anyone taking bipolar medications and had a hard time conceiving?

Are your medications set up so that you are slightly high or a maybe ever so slightly hypomanic? My regular mood is slightly depressed if not depressed or really depressed. I’m looking for some hope here. I heard from my doctor that some people are slightly high from their medication but she hasn’t heard of someone with psychosis like me having this effect. I have small delusions, I see things sometimes, but I know they are not real.

Tell me about it.
What medication do you take, who is your doctor?
email me and tell me more

A friend of mine is most likely bipolar and realizes it but is wary of taking meds. Can anyone offer any reassurance? I would like to see him be able to get some help and relief.

I recently lost my job, things with my spouse have been very rough and we have been fighting a lot. I have been using some illegal substances from time to time and also some social drinking. These were not reasons why I lost my job, I was down sized. I’ve never been without work and my finances have never been so low…I felt myself getting very frustrated and crying a lot of the time so I thought some time in the hospital would help me. I had been on 10mg of Lexapro for the past year for anxiety and was using ativan to help me sleep, but only 0.5mg a few nights a week. I spent 5 days in the hospital and a P.A. diagnosed me with bipolar. She says that I was experienceing a manic episode because I was upset that they wouldn’t release me to go to my daughter’s birthday party. I started crying and she said that I was acting manic because I was upset. I literally just sat in the chair and cried because I had never missed her birthday and I felt horrible for disappointing my kid. This was the P. A. ‘s basis for my diagnosis, along with the depression that I was checked in with. I don’t have suicidal thoughts, I don’t have euphoria or thoughts of graduer or anything like that. I see a therapist once a week and he agrees that I do not have bipolar disorder. I take seroquel xr200mg every night. My spouse says that since I’ve been on the meds that I am worse, more irritable, and when I’m not arguing with him I’m sleeping or like a zombie. I can’t think half the time. It’s been almost three months on the meds and I told my physchiatrist that my phsychologist thought I was misdiagnosed. The physchiatrist started yelling at me, told me if I stopped taking my meds that I would commit suicide or kill my kids or end up in the mental hospital again. She says she is going to write a letter to my psychologist to tell him he is nuts and is doing me harm and shoudn’t be my therapist and he’s not a MD so he shoudn’t be giving medical advice. I have been seeing this therapist off and on since I was in my early 20′s, he has known me and my history for a long time and he is convinced that with continued therapy that he can help me through this without long term meds (aside from continuing the lexapro). I have been reading up on seroquel side effects and it scares me to continue taking them. I just want to stop and feel like myself again and have my spouse feel like he has his spouse back again. I have scheduled an appt with a new psychiatrist for August, but I don’t want to take any more meds until I see him. Can I just stop the Seroquel XR? I haven’t seen any bad bad withdrawl effects anywhere on the internet that I can’t handle with the spouse’s support and my weekly therapy sessions. My therapist and I have gone over the symptoms for diagnosis of BP and I don’t have enough to diagnose me as BP, especially now that I am in therapy and have quit the occassional drug usage (it was only once in a while so it was easy to quit). Very light drinking socially now and I just want to get back to myself again….why do I need meds when I spent so many years being happy? I’m just in a bad spot in my life with job and money but I know things will get better, I love my spouse and my kids and I love my life. Things will get better and I know that, I don’t need a pill to know that. I just needed someone to talk to to get through some tough times and reasure myself that I am strong enough to get my family through these struggles without drinking or drugs or meds or any of that. I really feel that the therapist is more helpful than pills, why can’t my psychiatrist understand that?
Is there anyone who has abruptly stopped seroquel xr200mg and what were the withdrawls you experienced?
I should also add that I am on 100mg of Topamax for migraines daily (which is also somewhat of a mood stabilizer). I was not weaned onto the seroquel xr 200mg. This was the dose I was started at while in the hospital. I’m not supposed to cut them in half. My therapist is not telling me to stop my meds, just is advising that I talk to my doc about reducing and eventually stopping them since he doesn’t see anything to support the diagnosis. He has given me all sorts of tests, ink blots and other written tests and verbal psych tests. No symptoms now or in my past tests years ago that point to BP.

One of the most common barriers to recovery is non-compliance with taking medication. In fact, in working with people with manic-depressive illness, I have reached the point where every day now I hear the same story from either someone under treatment or their spouse – “Everything was fine until I/he/she stopped taking the meds”.

Now I do not for one moment believe that people with bipolar disorder are stupid, and that they do not understand the relationship between taking medication and staying well. In fact, it is well accepted that folks with bipolar disorder tend to be, if anything, smarter than the average bear.

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