Posted by Ritch on March 11, 2005, at 13:24:21
In reply to Relapse or Poop Out -- Soft Bipolar Disorder, posted by CK1 on March 9, 2005, at 19:54:31
>>Hi all,
I was given Paxil for anxiety 3 years ago and it worked great for a few years but quit working in January. I have since tried Effexor/Zoloft and they have done nothing besides make me feel worse. Has anybody ever had a really good experience on an SSRI only to have it "poop out", then you go on the SSRI "merry go round" and nothing works?
Well, this is a very good sign that you might have "Soft Bipolar Disorder" which is only improved with the addition of a mood stabilizer: depakote, lamictal, etc. In these cases, SSRI's and Stimulants can make you worse if a mood stabilizer is not added to your treatment. Hmmmmmm....It never occured to me that this could be a reason that I relapsed after feeling "soooo good" this summer.Hi, interesting read. Yes, I believe there is a large group of people with affective disorders who aren't clearly bipolar.. whose experience with the newer drugs such as SSRI's *uncovers* or possibly *induces* bipolar "symptoms". I wouldn't necessarily feel certain that SSRI's could CAUSE bipolar disorder, but I definitely think that SSRI's can "turn up" bipolar in some people. Anyhow, to get to my subject line tangent.. I notice that when I get SSRI induced hypomanic symptoms (the euphoric good stuff) it seems that I find everything funny and it is like I'm stoned on weed or something and have difficulty suppressing laughter and giggling. What's really weird is that I can "hear" this particular type of giddy laughter in OTHER people that aren't "bipolar", and sure enough they have been put on an SSRI after some crisis, breakup, death in the family, whatnot, and they are still on them, and their PERSONALITY is different in that particular respect afterwords (and their personality wasn't "bad" prior). Just wondering if anyone had any comment about this type of phenomenon... Hypomania? Just a nice side effect of the SSRI? Benign? ?
poster:Ritch
thread:468932
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050308/msgs/469713.html