question about antidepressants

[LindaM]

Hi all, I wonder if anyone has knowledge about medications. I don't take any medicine for panic. I have always been told I would just have to take them and see what side affects if any happen. One thing that blocks me is one doctor told me maybe I am bipolar. For whatever reason he was not able to tell obviously. And said there are different levels. So this has kept me from taking SRI antidepressants. Becuase I have heard they can cause a bipolar person to have psychosis. My regular GP says thats not true. That people with Bipolar have quick results with SRI. I really don't know who is right. Under what circumstances does it happen when a person gets psychosis. I am just curious if anyone has bipolar and had either good or really bad experience. thanks Linda

[twister]

Hi Linda

I am on a SSRI and find it really helps my panic. Regarding bi-polar disorder, I am pretty sure you can take anti-deps on them as that is part of what they are made for, severe depression but obviously your doctor knows best.

Why does your doctor think you have bi-polar disorder? You can go into psychotic states when in the mania part of bi-polar disorder but as your doctor says there are different levels of it and if you were in this bad a stage you would not be asking about it if that makes sense!

Regarding simple anxiety and unipolar depression, you absolutely cannot go in to a psychotic state from it alone as it is a wholly different illness.

Hope this helps

Emily

[LindaM]

Hi Becky, I guess because I get anxious and depressed he thought it might be bipolar. I think he said because I don't cycle high or low. He can't tell exactly. That is all I can tell you he said. I wonder if the other type of antidepressants like Nortripline were the ones that cause problems in bipolar. He gave me a prescription for Respridyl but said it is for schitzoprinics. But that they get 500 mil and a bipolar person would get 5 miligrams. This was all experimental if I did well it would mean yes bipolar and if not then I wasn't I didn't want to try that so I didn't do anything.

[LindaM]

HI Emily, I have no idea in the world where I got the name Becky. Sorry Linda

[twister]

all sounds a bit odd to me - Meg do you have any ideas??

Could you go and get a second opinion? I dont really see how anxiety and depression equals a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.....

Emily

[Meg]

Bi-polar affective disorder, is a mood disorder, characterised by swings in a person's mood from high to low - euphoric to depressed.

In the manic phase ( Hypomania ), you may have excessive amounts of energy and feel little need for sleep. Your thinking and speech tend to be faster than usual, and your thoughts can jump rapidly from one subject to another, making conversation difficult. Inflated self-esteem, loss of inhibitions, and grandiose ideas or delusions are typical features. When you are manic you may behave in ways which can have serious consequences when the episode is past, for example leaving your job, spending a lot of money, or giving away your possessions

During a severe depressive episode, you may have feelings of hopelessness and despair, of lethargy, broken sleep, overwhelming negativity and difficulty in carrying on with the activities of day-to-day life. When you are depressed you may want to withdraw from society or even contemplate suicide

We all get bits of these - racing thoughts etc but with Bipolar its really the extremes that count . People wil literally go out and blow £20,000 in a day or lose all inhibitions , these extremes are the diagnosis points... it's often misdiagnosed if the diagnosis is very quick - on one episode . Bipolar needs to be a reoccuring cycle.

As for treatments

Often its controlled overall by lithium- the drug of choice -especially when the manic/depression cycles are quickly cycling but the depressive cycles are definately treated by SSRI's but don't mix the two.

Bippolar people are not always very anxious - they're manic or depressed. Scared about their condition but not GAD or panicky in our traditiona way of viewing it.

I hope that helps






Meg

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

[diana]

Hiya Meg and Emily,

Good posts, great information. Thanks, all of this info. is really interesting. I can not however add anything to this forum, because I am not familiar with bi-polar disorder. Thanks again for the information and enlightenment.

Take care all,

Diana xxx

[LindaM]

Hi thanks Meg for that information. I have never had any of those types of things happen as far as doing things out of character. I get anxious and then can get depressed but don't go to extremes to where it affects me on a large scale. I have gotten anxious and say walked out of a store or bank and not worried about the consequences. I have been depressed and thought of getting away from people and not wanting to have to do things I need to do such as cooking ect. Still I continue on anyway. So I don't know what to think. Maybe I should just forget about the bipolar thing altogether. Linda M

[gaza448]

Hi Linda I know this is an old post but i thought i'd reply my wife suffers bipolar disorder and i have seen both depressed and manic and you don't sound as though you have it. The hard thing about this illness is that the person who has it doesn't realise if they are going manic they think they are perfectly ok and when going depressed can't do anything about it its up to family or friends to help. My wife takes lithium and respiridol this has kept her well for 4years it took 9 years to find a combination of medication that worked

Gary