Posted by JohnX2 on April 8, 2002, at 19:57:21
In reply to The price you pay for hypomania, posted by Ponder on April 8, 2002, at 18:52:01
> > > Thanks guys, I'll give the other mood stabilizers a shot. As for feeling "better than well", it's hard to remember how I felt exactly, but I don't remember it being euphoric. I just felt good, had energy, motivation. So you say that the Serzone keeps you in a low hypomanic state, eh? So then it IS possibly to maintain hypomania?
> >
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> > > Maybe that will be my new goal: the search for a constant hypomania.
> >
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> > Oh no, this is difficult to achieve and *quite annoying* frankly. I liken it to my spring break trip where after a number of days you feel obliged to wake up at 7 am and start drinking beer to keep the party going. It wears you down and gets really old after a while. Trust me on this one. ;-)
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> > John
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> > I feel like I should know the answer to this question. I am seeing a new psychotherapist. One of the things I have asked her to do is to help me monitor my mood and watch for trends up or down. I "lose insight" as they say, when either depressed or hypomanic and often don't take appropriate action until things get extreme.
> This women has said to me that I should not be concerned about hypomania; that I should just go with it and enjoy it. I always thought that an important part of avoiding depression was controlling hypomania...the what-goes-up-must-come-down concept. She says this is not true. Now I'm confused. Input?I wish there was more discussion on this board about hypomanic experiences, but there isn't so I don't see the trends, nor do I have good answers either.... As always, people are less likely to "complain" about hypomania so that probably answers my 1st statement. Also we may do embarrasing things that we don't want to talk about (at least I do).
My doctor is very concerned about the "what-goes-up-must-come-down concept". So I think it does apply for many patients. Because of this he is very anti-AD as much as possible for bipolar. I have found that ADs that made me extremely manic crap out so quickly that it is a non issue. Only one AD seems to give a steady state behavior for me and that is Serzone (for whatever reason). It seems to be a mild AD. I was at a low-lying hypomanic state for a while on Serzone (and I think Topamax believe it or not was adding fire) with my Lamictal (which doesn't make me manic).
I think it is true. If you feel good, run with it (unless full blown manic). But I tend to get agitated and lose judgement so I can only run with it while in solitary confinement to keep me out of trouble. Thats no fun, I want to socialize but I need to stay away from my friends so that I don't do something offensive and stupid! Plus after a number of days of my body running at full bore I feel stimulated yet worn out at the same time and it sucks.
I did have a really bad series of manic bouts recently (and I was recategorized as Bipolar I), and when I came off of them it was CRASH (big depression). So for me it seems to be a bit of a function of just "how good" things are going...
So, I dont know...
Do you have long running hypomanic bouts?
Regards,
John
poster:JohnX2
thread:102030
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020408/msgs/102432.html