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medication,triggers, and anxiety

By rapunzel Thursday, November 22, 2007
The last two weeks i have been busy packing and booking reservations for my trip with my daughter to put her in college.  I have noticed more emotional outbursts because my daughter is leaving, less sleep but adequate about 7 hours, but shakiness and tremours and one panic attack, anyways went to the doc and he put me back on seroquel 200 mg, I had been off it for approx. 2 months, and maintained on depakine 500 mg.  In anybodys experience, usually one has to have at least two of these together to be balanced? After i started on the seroquel, i felt all those anxieties are gone? why? My brain is quieter. Does this mean i have to just stay on meds forever and one drug is not enough, or is it that i try depekine alone and as long as there is no outside stressors then i will be fine? As a patient and taking meds, only you can determine what is happening and what is enough for a person.  I guess i am more aware of what is happening to me, the anxieties building, awareness that i dont want to crash on my trip if i am going to be a support for my daughter. I didnt know that taking trips could set you off, and last year it did, stress, my sister had heart surgery and my 3 year old with me, so now i know, soon after that i was hospitalized.  So if anyone can help me, walk me thru this  a bi polar winding up, so i can be more able to monitor myself, i think i just did, thank god and what to expect in the present and future?  Does it help to monitor mood swings and chart them? If you knew your triggers good and bad does it help to stay away from the bad and lean toward the good? linda
bi-polar
11/22/07 7:40am

Relax.  I was very emotional when my daughter went to college too and I'm not bipolar.  I was scared to let her out of my sight.  We are very close and she's a very innocent girl. I was imagining so many awful things, I was giving myself panic attacks as well.  She's in her second year now and she's doing great.  I miss her but I don't worry about her so much.  Last year, she proved to be responsible enough to live on her own and keep up with her studies.

It's so tough when your baby leaves the nest.  Journal and chart your mood swings but if you feel like crying, don't worry about it.  This is a tough time for every parent.  If the Seroquel is helping you, that is good.    Get some exercise and eat well.  You should be fine.

Take care.

11/24/07 8:58pm

Rapunzel,

I can tell you that for 3 years I have been looking for my triggers and found them....anxiety, stress, change of routine is the big one.  I share custody of my 3 year old and the weekend when her Dad has her is very hard on me..and this happens every other week.  When I am taking care of her my life is very scheduled...that is the only way I can keep my brain from spiralling out of control with a string of thoughts miles long.  I have 2 daughters in college and I try not to worry about them, but money is always a worry and I worry about their happiness, too.  I recently drove 12 hours with my 3 year old to see my dad and spent 5 days with him.  I was so anxious about the trip that i had panic attacks and nightmares, couldn't sleep...felt things begining to race.  The trip went okay but was stressful.  I increased my meds but I still felt bad.  My family, however, thought I was great...all calm and serene, although I was anything but inside.  The meds just make it look like that.  I had tremendous fatigue on the trip and tried to sleep when I felt like it...that helped me get through.  even now that I am back i have increased fatigue, easy crying, anxiety, irritability.  And this is all on meds.  I envy those who are "normal" on meds because I have taken them for 4 years and have yet to feel "normal"  I mostly feel like I just manage to get through the day...but I have bipolar 2 with mostly depression...it sneaks up on me and by the content of my post, I would say it is sneaking up again.

11/24/07 11:28pm
I would say that you have your plate full, and i sympathize with you and totally agree that this anxiety sneaks up on you, which it did for me in the last 2 weeks..I think also if you have no one to express your anxieties to and keep it all in, it is worse,  The book bi polar happens by julie fast is very good, Basically, she gives you some ideas to follow when different things happen to you and how you feel...like listen to music exercise and or do yoga and pilates...I know also that you can look ok but inside you have so many emotions swirling around inside,sometimes you just need someone to  agree or listen to you vent about your worries, and a lot of times a man cant do that, they get stressed out and dont feel comfortable about us women talking about detail.  One book i came up about that has helped me focus about my triggers, which is basically worry turned into anxiety, was Edward Hallowell on Worry.  I found an article about Taming your Anxiety.  This ideal is similiar to Julie Fasts Book in that you are in control of the mind and how you run drama in your mind.  Last but not least is a Book, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle about how you can be in charge of your mind and worry.  I am working on that now and feel much better, it is hard to do after so many years of the mind taking over of things and making them worse and I get more irritable and more anxious.  Check it out, we just need to know how to apply it on a daily basis, i think we just have to carry the book with us and read excerpts from it from time to time for a month til we can actively do it.  You know after reading that book, voices in our heads, naw, everyone has a dialouge going on, whew thats a relief, we are just more inclined to worry and obsess on things and get carried away.  Oh, dont forget to excercise and destress, yoga and pilates, the exercise has to be aerobics, walking or treadmill or bike.  I noticed a big difference in husband, daughter and myself. ok Take care and take one day at a time.  linda

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By rapunzel— Last Modified: 09/20/10, First Published: 11/22/07