Posted by Ritch on March 22, 2003, at 15:56:51
In reply to Re: i guess im bi polar » Ritch, posted by Jumpy on March 22, 2003, at 11:10:13
> > That's been my experience. I've had intense depressive periods all the way through childhood, but sustained (more than a few hours) elevated mood episodes didn't get really prominent until my late teens and esp. my 20's. Depression predominating in BPII is very common. It still burns about half the year for me, while the highs probably take up about 3 days out of every 20 on average. Social anxiety goes up and down with my moods. When I'm depressed I get very socially withdrawn. When I get high the reverse tends to happen. I believe I have comorbid ADD, however. At least one pdoc thought so, too, anyhow. The ADD can also worsen at both mood extremes. Highs put too much on your plate to deal with, lows slow down your brain and make it hard to function. When my mood is relatively normal I still have a lot of absent-minded inattentiveness problems. SSRI's are the only AD's that seem to trigger worsened cycling and manic spells for me. Sometimes the AD can make you just irritable instead.
>
> Hey Ritch,
>
> Can you tell me more about ad triggered cycling? Do the SSRIs make the highs and lows more intense ... or do they extend the manic periods from several days into several weeks? Is mood charting the best way to determine if your cycling with hypomania? Thanks alot.
>
> Jumpy
Hi, yeah do the mood charting! If you don't do that you will FORGET what has been going on and your appraisal of your cycling will be inaccurate. When you get depressed it will seem like you have been depressed most of the time-when you get high it will seem like you aren't stable enough (even though it is mild and short-lived). If something remarkably bad or good happens to you--write it down that day. Listing your meds and the dosages establishes a pattern that you can look over to see if you can establish some kind of causal relationship to either a lack of response or side effects, etc. Most importantly (in some cases) it will help you determine what med is likely causing what side effect or to possibly eliminate a medication caused unintended effect.Med-induced cycling... In my own case I haven't noticed antidepressants *increasing* the cycle frequency. What they (esp. SSRI's) seem to do is make the peaks and troughs more contrasted or remarkable. It would be similar to riding a relatively flat roller coaster that is mostly below the surface of the ground and then taking the entire track and lifting it mostly out of the ground, but making the kinks taller and deeper in the track, but not moving the location of the kinks.
poster:Ritch
thread:211285
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030319/msgs/211524.html