Posted by MoparFan91 on October 23, 2005, at 22:07:15
In reply to Anyone who had rapid cycling and got it to stop?, posted by fuchsia on October 23, 2005, at 5:04:01
I have Bipolar-NOS and usually cycle rapidly throughout the day every ~8 hours or so untreated. This is referred to as Ultradian cycling. I have mixed states as well.
I took Depakote before. I took it starting in adolescence but it mainly helped a lot with real bad temper and anger issues that I had in my early teens at puberty. When I got in my very late teens, it didn't really hit the bipolar symptoms.
Around 2 years ago, I was having severe mixed state depression Hells when on 1,000mg of Depakote per day. I was rapid cycling and having bad depression.We added 10mg (then 20mg) of Lexapro to the Depakote to help with depression. Basically, that was the only doing anything for the bipolar.
Depakote (the mood stabilizer) was already doing nothing at all before taking the Lexapro.
This was like taking an SSRI w/o a mood stabilizer.
Anyway, Lexapro was wonderful. It lifted me out of depression and got me thru the holidays undepressed (usually, I sink a bit during that time). It kept me out of 'depression' Hell. I felt positive overall and less obsessive-compulsive. I was more socially appropriate, too. I was able to share feelings with others better.
I still had some mood cycling and anxiety, though, but they weren't as bad when taking the Lexapro. I started cycling bad back into depression, though, when I stopped Lexapro cold turkey.Anyway, I'm on Topamax (250mg) and Lamictal (400mg) right now.
My cycles thru the day don't last as long. The higher I've gone up on the doses of each, the shorter my cycles have been. When something triggers a cycle, my mood returns to baseline sooner than before.
Also, the amplitudes of my mood cycles have gone down a bit as well especially when the Topamax was added. My Mixed State Hells are basically gone but the depression (sadness/tearfulness) part is still masked thru it sometimes.I'm now actually on mood stabilizers "that work". Topamax works well to keep anxiety, agitation, and irritability at bay, and Lamictal keeps me out of only 'severe' depressions.
However, I stay moderately depression, at baseline, much of time still, so I might still need some SSRI (maybe some Lexapro again). I do have fairly good amount of energy, though.Lamictal is a pretty weak anti-depressant at the best.
poster:MoparFan91
thread:570802
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051017/msgs/571191.html