what can I do about my Bipolar Disorder?

Question

I got my psychiatric evaluation several hours ago----I'm diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the Doc issued me a prescription...So I want to ask, except taking lithium, what else can I do ?...I just sit here and take pills every few hours?....Thanks.

Answer 1

First of all, ignore the first answer and any other people who try to tell you that your condition isn't real or that it is somehow your fault. I always want to ask people who spout that kind of dangerous ignorance if they'd deny a diabetic their insulin, or someone with a broken leg their crutches.

Secondly, give yourself time to come to terms with what this diagnosis means, and give the medication time to do its work. Most drugs which act on your brain tend to act on your body first, and often in a negative way initially. I'm not saying this to scare you, or in any way dissuade you from taking the Lithium, and I'm sure your doctor has warned you about possible side-effects and what to watch out for, but I don't think it can be stressed too much how important it is to give these things a proper chance to work, keep taking them, and don't stop suddenly.

In time you will work out what helps and what doesn't - I found that gathering information and hearing other people's stories helped in my days of early diagnosis (not with BPD, but similar), and the Internet is a wonderful place for that, but that might not work for you.

I just keep coming back to giving yourself time, and getting to know who you are - I suspect you'll like what you find once things settle down...

Answer 2

I can remember six years ago, being in much the same boat.
Apart from taking the lithium? Well, life goes on. I kept working, although it was hard for the first couple of weeks while I got used to the lithium. Remembering to stick to the routine of taking the pills was a challenge, at first. There were no particularly horrendous side effects. What I noticed after about six weeks, or two months was the reduction of the 'chatter' in my head, and I didn't feel, well, manic, as often. I wasn't, to quote a friend of mine at the time, so prone to being distracted by shiny objects, and then running off after them. I'm not here to sing the praises of lithium, it's made my life more livable. I still have my down days, and my floods of ideas. I cope with them better. What do I do with my time? I've got a couple of hobbies, nothing too serious. Time fillers. Things to keep me occupied. On the whole, life has gone on, pretty much as before, but I feel I have more control. Lithium, for me, has given me the choice to manage my illness better. It didn't make it go away. I'm realistic about that. I had my tonsils out, but I still get sore throats, to use an analogy.
I take my lithium, and I still have 'days'. But they're not horrendous days.
For me, being bipolar is not some figment of my imagination. I've survived a full blown manic episode that left me homeless, jobless, and in effect, penniless. It's not a laughing matter. I've survived depression that saw me so unable to cope that I couldn't speak for two days, and moving so slowly, it was like the air around me was treacle.

The only advice I will give you is this - Keep taking your medication. From my own experience, it is the best thing you can do for Yourself.

Answer 3

You made the first step in seeing a Dr. Be proud of yourself. Bipolar can be controlled although you are in for a rocky road. First no matter how well you are feeling never stop taking your medications!See if your Dr. knows of a good therapist.......talk therapy can be of help if you can trust. A therapist is a trained professional. He/she cannot nor will not betray you.Everything you say to your Therapist will remain confidential. It can help you by being able to opening up and talking about things. Your Therapist can also warn you of when your medications need adjusting. I feel talk therapy is even more important than just medications alone.Journal's are also another great tool.If you think your thoughts are getting out of control. If you are getting by on less sleep Write about it. You are right when you say you can't just take a pill every few hours. Good luck!

Answer 4

Being diagnosed as bipolar doesn't mean that you can't have a normal fulfilling life. My Mom and Brother are both bipolar. Once they found the right medication, they both felt much better and have carried on with their lives. It may take a little time for the medication to get into your system and start stabilizing you, then you will feel like getting back into the swing of things. My brother had a hard time until they got his meds right for him, but now he is working, happy and engaged to a great girl. You will be fine.

Answer 5

that's alot to take in for you, with such a recent diagnosis. i understand that giving up the highs is going to be difficult, feeling invinsible and capable of anything. but the lows are excrutiating.
commonly, people with bipolar stop taking their medication when they are feeling the highs; because it is such a great feeling. but then have to go through the lows along with it and the life disrupting effect the behavioiur during the highs can have.
my advice would be to try the meds for a period of time, i.e., at least 3 months. see how you feel, what effect they have on you and your overall functioning. if you are not happy, go back to your doctor who prescibed them and discuss your concerns.
additionally; go and see a psychiatrist to help you dealing with the disorder.
do not fear; by taking the medication, you will be able to continue your life successfully.
i wish you all the best.

Answer 6

I believe you are now in your "down" polar, otherwise you should not go and see a Dr.
Take the medicine, and hope it will help after few weeks. It might not help, so you should try another medicine.

Let me ask you 2 things:
1. Don't stop to take any medicine without talk with your Dr. (even when you will feel healthy and strong).
2. Never give up !!

Answer 7

i feel for you, i got 2 son , with the problem,,, both was on med,,, but at first the med did help, but then , the med turn on them,,, ,, honest you got to take each day as it come,,,, but you need to get out an enjoy life as much as you can,, so for , both of my son , liveing a fair life, true their problem, but the one that know them under stand,

Answer 8

You can give up, or get a grip!
We ALL have depression moods some time in our lives!
Stop thinking yes or no, and try thinking maybe.
Your mental state is up to YOU!
Take the pills, but DON'T wallow in self pity, or your condition will only get worse, get out, and live your life to the full!

Answer 9

I suspect you need to be somewhere in the middle..................

Answer 10

To be happy see this video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4P5Pmdvgp4

About Psychiatry see this video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=en

Understanding Psychiatry:

"Psychiatry is not the same as neurology; whereas neurology treats diseases that have their aetiology or their physiology known and proven by medical science, psychiatry treats mental conditions where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_diseases

Psychiatry is not the same as Psychology; whereas Psychology studies the cognitive and subconscious mental processes of man with no regard towards physiology; Psychiatry studies theoretical mental disorder with the assumption that those disorders are based on physiological deficiencies.

Psychology develops therapies aimed to improve mans cognitive processes; whereas Psychiatry develops physiological treatments to treat theoretical physiological deficiencies where aetiology and physiology are both unknown and unproven.

The unscientific assumption that mental disorders are based on physiological deficiencies creates an arbitrary that makes any further research done by Psychiatry unscientific. You can’t base science on assumptions and arbitraries.

Psychiatry treats theoretical mental disorders with theoretical physiological treatments.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical mental disorders:
Premenstrual dysphonic disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome.
Gender identity disorder: If you are gay you have this disorder.
Female orgasmic disorder: Many types of conditions are under this code.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes_%28alphabetical%29
As you see, these mental disorders are actually unscientific arbitraries based solely on opinion.

Examples of Psychiatric theoretical physiological treatments:
1st Example
Electroconvulsive therapy is a barbaric treatment where brain damage is induced into the patient by passing 70 to 200 volts of electricity through your brain. The electro shock and the heat further produce more brain damage by the effect decomposition and toxicity of dead brain cells. The only benefit of Electroconvulsive therapy is that it produces memory loss and amnesia. So the patient forgets its problems. Electroconvulsive therapy has caused death, coma and disabilities on patients.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2431926628202445879
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2761074183936137060
“About 100,000 people in the USA undergo ECT every year.”
“The most commonly accepted theory is that ECT's mechanism of action is similar to that of antidepressant drugs and involves neurotransmitters, in particular dopaminergic, serotoninergic and noradrenergic systems.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_shock_therapy

2nd Example:
Lobotomy is another barbaric treatment developed by Psychiatry in the name of mental health. In this procedure brain damage is induced into the patient by cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex or simply destroying it.
“Even lobotomy's proponents admitted that only one third of the operated patients would improve, while one-third remained the same, and one-third got worst (25 to 30 % is the proportion of spontaneous improvement in many kinds of mental diseases! Thus, a large proportion of the operated patients could have recovered without the lobotomy).
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/lobotomy.htm

3rd Example:
The chemical imbalance theory, this theory alleges that serotonin deficiency in the brain causes depression. The following video explains this theory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR9vtdueubc&mode=related&search=

But this theory is not based in science and experts disagree:

“I spent the first several years of my career doing full-time research on brain serotonin metabolism, but I never saw any convincing evidence that any psychiatric disorder, including depression, results from a deficiency of brain serotonin. In fact, we cannot measure brain serotonin levels in living human beings so there is no way to test this theory. Some neuroscientists would question whether the theory is even viable, since the brain does not function in this way, as a hydraulic system”
Stanford psychiatrist David Burns, winner of the A.E. Bennett Award given by the Society for Biological Psychiatry for his research on serotonin metabolism, when asked about the scientific status of the serotonin theory in 2003.

“Although it is often stated with great confidence that depressed people have a serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency, the evidence actually contradicts these claims”
Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience Elliot Valenstein

“Indeed, no abnormality of serotonin in depression has ever been demonstrated”
Psychiatrist David Healy, former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and historian of the SSRIs, in Let Them Eat Prozac (2004).

“A sugar pill was more effective than either St. John’s Wort or the antidepressant Zoloft in providing relief to severely depressed patients, according to a new study that is unlikely to end the debate about the role of the popular supplement in treating the disorder.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3076831/

“…I wrote that Prozac was no more, and perhaps less, effective in treating major depression than prior medications…. I argued that the theories of brain functioning that led to the development of Prozac must be wrong or incomplete”
Brown University psychiatrist Peter Kramer, author of Listening to Prozac, which is often credited with popularizing SSRIs, in a clarifying letter to the New York Times in 2002.

“Some have argued that depression may be due to a deficiency of NE [norepinephrine] or 5-HT [serotonin] because the enhancement of noradrenergicnor serotonergic neurotransmission improves the symptoms of depression. However, this is akin to saying that because a rash on one’s arm improves with the use of a steroid cream; the rash must be due to a steroid deficiency”
Psychiatrists Pedro Delgado and Francisco Moreno, in “Role of Norepinephrine in Depression,” published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry in 2000.

We must be able to differentiate real scientific research against special interest research. The fact is that the chemical imbalance theory is unfounded because:
1) A connection of ‘emotional states’ and neurotransmission levels have not been established.
2) It is impossible to measure the serotonin levels in living human beings.
3) There is no evidence that brain cells produce and then reabsorb serotonin.

In the following video two college professor explain exactly what I’m saying in Fox News: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbTqjSfMPKA&mode=related&search=

We must understand that psychiatric drugs are a multi billion dollars industry, and that careful marketing campaigns are created to push these drugs. We can even say that the whole “Chemical Imbalance Theory” was created in an effort to market these drugs. We can also say that anti-depressants are actually a marketing name for stimulants and anti-psychotic are actually a marketing name for depressants.
Three types of drugs:

Narcotics: (OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet), also known as analgesics or opiods are drugs that are prescribed for moderate to severe physical pain. They are abused because of their euphoric, sedating, and numbing effects. Narcotic abuse causes tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms are severe.

Depressants: (Xanax, Valium, Librium) are drugs that are prescribed to treat anxiety and sleep disorders. They are abused because of their sedating properties. With abuse, depressants cause tolerance and dependence and the withdrawal symptoms can be severe.

Stimulants: Ritalin, Dexedrine, Meridia) are prescribed to treat ADD/ADHD and other conditions such as asthma. They are abused because of their energizing and euphoric effects. Stimulants do not generally cause tolerance or dependence but abuse is associated with hostility and paranoia. There is also great risk for cardiovascular failure and seizures.

-Ritalin: Prescribed for individuals (usually children) who have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has a high potential for abuse and produces many of the same effects as cocaine or amphetamine. http://www.streetdrugs.org

Psychiatrists are not common people. Psychiatrists have a different point of view than the rest of society:
“A recent survey in the UK found that 83 per cent of psychiatrists thought that ECT( Electroconvulsive therapy) was more likely to be beneficial than harmful – this figure fell to 69 per cent of mental health nurses and 14 per cent of psychologists.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy

So how come Psychiatrists have such a different point of view than Psychologists and the rest of society?
Whereas Psychologists confronts the human mind or psyche and understand that each person behaviors is an evolution of his own personal experiences. Psychiatrists are unable to confront the human psyche; Psychiatrists don’t care about your emotional issues or traumas; Psychiatrists only deal with man as an object, a biomechanical machine incapable of controlling his mental processes.

How else can you explain Psychiatry barbaric treatments? Like Electroconvulsive therapy, Lobotomies, strait jackets and severe drugging of patients. For them you are not a person; for them you are only a biomechanical machine. People that join the Psychiatric profession do it in order to learn to deal with man in a mechanical way.

The real role of Psychiatry in society is that they are psyche executioners of society. Whenever a person doesn’t conform with the behavioral rules of society they can be sent to a Psychiatrist. And the Psychiatrist enforces the person to conform by the use of multiple control mechanisms; these mechanisms are drugs, electroshock, lobotomies and incarceration (When you are committed into a Psychiatric hospital against your will you are being incarcerated and your freedom is taken away from you. After this the patients are so scared that they will do anything in order to get out of that place.).
The behavioral rules of society are clearly expressed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association.

http://www.drugawareness.org/
http://www.adhdfraud.org/
http://www.escapefrompsychiatry.org/
http://www.antipsychiatry.org/
http://www.mindfreedom.org/
http://www.endofshock.com/
http://www.stopshrinks.org/
http://www.gwenolsen.com/
http://psychrights.org
http://www.prescriptionsuicide.com/
http://www.breggin.com/
http://www.healthyskepticism.org/
http://www.aspire.us/