Posted by loosmrbls on April 5, 2001, at 7:35:45
In reply to Re: New mood-stabilizers ? » SLS, posted by cole on April 4, 2001, at 20:49:01
Cole:
I forgot to post the name of a great website for the latest info on bipolar II. You don't need true mania to be Bipolar II (you would be Bipolar I if you had full mania) and people with bipolar II often don't think they've ever had a hypomanic episode. It takes a skilled psychiatrist to tease out the history -- although in my case it was pretty obvious.
I would recommend reading the website and see if what they talk about "feels right" to you. It may, it may not. You'll probably know after reading the website if Bipolar II sounds right for you, especially if you've lived with your illness for a while.
When I first found Dr. Bob's forum, I was both relieved and horrified to find so many people with "treatment resistant depression."
I'm becoming more convinced that "depression" is the final common symptom(s) of vastly different mental illnesses -- just as stomach pain, or fever, can be casued by many, very different illnesses.
After all, bipolar and unipolar depression look identical, and can be treated almost identical (although I think this will change) even though the illnesses are very different.
I think the small group of people who "get depressed" and recover after antidepressants are the exception and not the rule, and usually you can find a cause (so they would be adjustment disorder with depressed mood, or "situational depression.")
This forum obviously represents the people who do not fall into that category. I think many people are misdiagnosed with "depression" because depression is a common presentation for a variety of different mental illnesses. I was treated as "depressed" for over two years -- thankfully, the hypomania began to rear it's head more strongly and I found a great doctor, and I was diagnosed. I am now finding out the two years of being on antidepressants may have been worse for me -- not neutral, or simply delaying adequate treatment.
My point here? It's not the label or diagnosis that matters, it is finding the right drug(s) that work for you and make you better. If you (like me) have been on numerous trials of AD's and it didn't help (or makes you worse) it's time to maybe consider another diagnosis, or at least another type of medication.
Mood stabilizers are also used as an adjunct with AD's for refractory depression, so even if bipolar II doesn't seem like you, a trial of these drugs may be helpful.
poster:loosmrbls
thread:58657
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010403/msgs/58763.html