Hi everyone. I haven't been on in awhile. Probably since I felt I didn't need the support. But obviously I was fooling myself. I have been "upgraded" from Bipolar II to Bipolar I. I have been in a manic state for about 4 weeks now and am literally feeling like I'm going nuts!!! I have been put on Lithium 1200 mg, and my Lamitical has been upped to 250 mg, and Zoloft of 100 mg. And so far my mania hasn't subsided. My fiance has been EXTREMELY patient, but we do get into arguments because I'm always repeating myself,asking him the same question over and over. Not to mention having OCD I have been organizing and reorganizing everything. I feel like I need to be doing something 24/7. My pdoc says hopefully with the upped Lithium amount will help. I really hope so. Does anyone have suggestions when they are having a manic episode??? Or are any of you on a med that seems to help?? I'd appreciate any help.
Thanks for reading and giving suport,
Kristi
Kristi,
Unfortunately, with meds, what works for one person won't work for someone else. We're dealing with a brain made up of a bunch of different chemicals and if your particular mix isn't right, all goes haywire. Fortunately, I've recently recovered from a heavy manic episode and if you have medicine that has calmed you down enough, you might be able to take control of the situation. I recently talked with someone who is a recovered OCD sufferer. Now he isn't fully free of it, but he gave some tips to use whenever thoughts related to the disease would come. Whenever intrusive or manic thoughts surface, identify them as the disease and not a part of you, and refuse to care. He would say inside of his head something like this, "This is the disease. It's not who I am. I don't care." Then he would move on. Of course, this was more easily done when the chemicals in his head were more balanced, but the more he did this, the more he seemed to get a old of himself. I must say, it's seemed to work for me as well. Now, remember, if your brain's outta wack and the medicine is not calming those chemicals down, it will be much more difficult. I have Bipolar 1 as well, and if you would like to know what I'm on, I'll tell you. I'm on zoloft, tegretol, lithium, depakote, klonopin, and invega. The tegretol is new and it is an anti-convulsent I think it's called. It's slowed my mind way down so that the mania isn't as prevalent. I still deal with minor symptoms, but so far (almost 2 weeks) so good. I hope this helps.
I meant to say that "what works for one person won't NECESSARILY work for someone else" left that necessarily word out. oops!