Posted by blueberry on April 4, 2006, at 20:57:51
Here's the pattern:
3:00am begins a slow gradual adrenal-type rush, where I wake at 5:00 with fear, paranoia, anxiety, butterflies, restlessness, and almost complete inability to cope, almost insane-like.
9:00am it all fades away at this time and is replaced by a strong depression that feels a lot like the flu in the body and the brain.
8:00pm the depression lifts somewhat and there is no anxiety, fear, all that stuff, at all.
10:00pm go to bed.
3:00am it starts all over. Xanax or lunesta helps me sleep through some of it, but the longer I sleep, the worse it is when I wake up.
What is this? It's been going on for 15 months! Antidepressants or depakote tamed the pattern but the pattern still remains. No meds right now.
Sometimes I think maybe this is a weird form of bipolar that has a solid predictable pattern that repeats day after day...beginning with mixed dysphoric anxiety paranoia type mania changing to depressio and then mellowing out in the evening. Never heard of cycling like that.
I want to go in the hospital and at least be hooked up to a bunch of stuff and monitored for a 24 hour cycle so they tell me what happens at 3:00am that starts it all. And then what happens at 9:00am. And then at 8:00pm. What is changing?
But what kind of tests? What to look for? Do I just walk in? Do I need my doctor to agree and set it up? I'm so frustrated and near the end of my rope that it has been going on so long, is terribly incapacitating, and no one is doing anything about it except suggesting ADs, mood stabilizers, and benzos. I understand those can diminish my symptoms, but I'm telling you this isn't psychiatric. What the heck is it?
I need some tests. But what? Thryoid is normal. Cortisol is very low (but doesn't explain the abrupt changes at specific times of the day because the cortisol curve is smooth and properly shaped). Toxic metals test shows elevated levels above normal for mercury and lead. Hard to see how any of these things though would cause such defined patterns.
poster:blueberry
thread:628936
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060403/msgs/628936.html