Sometimes I look up melancholy on Pinterest just to conjure all that intensity and malaise. I am very healthy and well now. I spend my time on creativity, the sea, healthy eating, reading, chores etc, but I liked life before in all its strange intensities and living in the haze of that.

ever since i've started lithium (about 2 months ?? ago) i've lost my appetite & have been losing weight. granted i have a comorbid eating disorder, but i have been maintaining my weight since the past year. has anyone else experience anorexia & weight loss on lithium? because all i've ever heard of is people gaining weight on it... am i the chosen one LOL

as i know low dose is more for sleep. i take 25mg, does it worth to raise dose ?

My friend is bipolar, and he just told me that earlier today, he took 6000mg of lithium. He thinks he threw it up and feels fine, should I push him to go to the hospital? What is he in for, and is there anything special I can do for him?

Thanks, I'm sorry if this post isn't allowed.

I don’t know if this is something others experience, but when I’m having a manic episode it feels like I’m literally in a movie. My manic episodes can be so intense and so surreal. I often end up in situations that feel like a scene from a movie because they are so weird or even dangerous. For example, while I was with a tinder date, we heard someone getting mugged outside. I ran outside and tried to break up the mugging without thinking of how dangerous that situation could be. Mind you, I’m 5’1 and at the time I was 90 pounds due to my drug use and lack of eating/sleeping. My tinder date ended up getting punched in the face after following me out there. I felt invincible and impulsively thought it was the only course of action instead of calling the police or asking more people to help. Idk what I’d do now but I’d be much more hesitant to run out there and try to fight a man nearly twice my size who may have a weapon. That was such a wild experience and I just can’t believe I did that and that it didn’t turn out worse. But I’ve found myself in multiple wild situations. Sometimes in those situations, it didn’t even feel like I was a part of it. It felt like I was watching a character acting out a scene. It was like an out of body experience. I don’t know how else to describe it. It feels like there are cameras filming every little aspect of my life. I don’t try to act as if I’m being filmed and I don’t necessarily feel paranoid or scared of being watched. It’s the strangest feeling.

I’m medicated now and check in with my psychiatrist every three months. I go to therapy and take my medication religiously because I take my disorder very seriously. I want to be stable, I want to thrive at work, have a place to live, and keep my relationships healthy. But I won’t lie, my manic episodes feel good in a weird way, at least while I’m in them, I hate myself afterwards. I hate being unstable and putting my life at risk. My episodes are more intense than any drug I’ve ever tried because the emotions I feel are so intense and I’m so aware of them. So yeah, I feel like I’m being filmed and my life is a movie while I’m manic.

Has anyone else experience this?

hi everyone! does anyone here have bipolar 2 and pmdd. i know they can get misdiagnosed as one another but i have them comorbidly. sometimes ill be in a depressive episode and then once my pmdd symptoms come around i get EVEN MORE depressed or if im hypo manic while im having pmdd symptoms im ALL over the place, cant sleep, hyper focused, impulsive, and suffer from physical symptoms on top of it.

i have been recently diagnosed with bipolar 2 but have add pmdd for many years. mental health has always been invalidated for me by family. it was demonized and just not real. all of my cries for help were ignored. after receiving my diagnosis of bipolar 2 it’s been hard for me to cope, validate, and understand. does anyone have bipolar 2 along with other chronic illnesses? does anyone have advice for me on how i can learn more about how this stuff affects me? where do i start? thanks 🫶🏾

When I was first taken to a psychiatrist , I was in my teens and was lashing out everyday on the toxic behaviour of my mom and dad. So my dad complained to the doctor about my aggression and without even proper testing the doctor gave a diagnosis of Bipolar. But the doctor didn't know that I was growing up in a house of extreme manipulation and extreme domestic violence. Ever since his diagnosis no matter which doctor I go to, they give me medicines for bipolar for the past ten years I have never gotten a new assessment nor did any other doctor think to actually consider if I'm just depressed or is my bipolar trigger by the medicines I have been on continuosly..

I think I'm a naturally hypomanic person.

When I'm not depressed or anxious which is 90 percent of my awake time, I'm hypomanic. I feel good about myself but so not see others as less. I happily talk to others and moreover I happily listen to others speak about their issues for hours.

In this ten percent of time, I make friends easily, see future clearly ,get my tasks done, be productive and and actually enjoy life. But all this is only for an hour or half a day. The rest of the time I'm depressed. Not motivated to do anything ,physically feel weak,smoke too many cigarettes, can't focus on anything, can't read , can't work (I'm unemployed) sometimes be idealizing suicide. I want to live my whole life in that hypomanic phase where I get things done and zolpedium has been helping regards to that.

Whenever I take zolpedium(maximum 20mg) I get hypomanic and happy and work really well. If I take beyond 20mg of it then I become manic and agressive and angry.

Risperidone is also on my prescription but I don't take it because it makes me so weak physically and mentally. It creates a severe fog before an extremely long sleep and that fog remains for 6 - 8 hours even after waking up from a 14hour nap. My doctor is not listening to me regarding this , because this is preventing that short hypomanic time of my day where I do things to survive as a human being.

My prescription is 1.) Inspiral 20- which is basically indian version of ritalin 2.) sertraline 150- I don't even know if it's working 3.) Divalproex 1G 4.) Resperidon 3mg - which I stopped taking 5.) zolpedium - self prescribed to counter the anxiety at the down of Inspiral. Should I choose a new doctor? If not what should I tell her? Please help me and share your experiences with misdiagnosis or correct diagnosis of Bipolar disorder.

I decided to post on this sub because it was suggested I might be bipolar based on my reaction to a new med I'm taking. I'm taking Wellbutrin 150 MG XL. Today would be my 4th day. I started to notice pretty much right off the bat, that people are staring/looking at me whenever I go outside. It's like they're keeping an eye on me and when I catch them staring, they won't stop no matter what. This kind of thing has never really happened to me before and a lot of people have suggested bipolar/psychosis. But I don't mentally feel any different? I've just noticed people are looking at me in public. Has anyone had this reaction? Like I seriously don't even know how to tell my doctor this, they're going to put me in the hospital and I don't want that. I feel fine mentally (Just depressed but that's what I'm taking Wellbutrin for)

I see friends on social media and life seems so much easier for them than me. I’ve had to work for every little thing I’ve ever done or accomplished - even within my own family - and it’s just not fair or doesn’t seem kind to me. I’m struggling just to finish my last two classes to get my BA at 33 years old and all my dad can do is make fun of me for it. It hurts. I’m looking for a new job and can’t find anything. It hurts. Everything hurts. I overthink everything. Please if you know why we with bipolar suffer, please share.

I suffer from anxiety on the regular. At times, I have found myself struggling at night due to anxiety. It usually starts with a random panic attack, and then extreme anxiety following that attack more or less due to the fear that I’ll experience another attack.

I have a general coping skill set- I’ll cut down electronics, try to be more regimented with a dedicated sleep schedule, increase journaling and mindfulness, and intervene with pharmaceuticals as needed.

Has anyone else experienced this, and if so, what are your tips/tricks/actionable steps for intervention?

Thank you 💜

I am bipolar 2 depression right now, and i take latuda +wellbutrin 300 mg , but it does not help much for my depress

So what shouls i do next ? Can i jump into another class first and then jump again for another class such as ssri/snri

I just saw in the sub AITA, a question relating to sweaters and weather and this asshole really left a comment that said this. Maybe I’m overreacting but I’m worked up over this dumb shit. People are so ignorant. I also had to say something to someone today in the same sub. Someone had posted something about all the posts on the page being fake, to which one replied “I think they are real, maybe you’re just schizophrenic.” What the actual fucking fuck.

Am I the only one who gets this angry over this shit? I can’t imagine I am? And what is the most obnoxious shit like this you hear? I expect to notice it more and more now that I’ve been diagnosed.

Update: the person who comment this is bipolar apparently but doesn’t change the way it feel. Gives others permission to say this stupid shit and have our diagnosis taken less and less seriously.

Have you ever been like genuinely exhausted and tired of your disorder? All of these episodes and mood swings. Did you ever feel like you can’t stand it? What do you do at suck reckless moments?

I'm currently working, but for about three months I've been in a debilitating depressive episode. This past week I was immobilized and couldn't accomplish hardly anything. If this continues I will get fired. I also made a major mistake last week that could also get me fired. I'll find out about that this coming week.

I recognize that I need to not work because I'm too symptomatic, but I don't have enough work history to go on SSDI: due to being unable to work from episodes. Even if I could, I don't think I'd be able to survive on it because my average income over the past ten years isn't much. I am in constant contact with a mental health professional, but all she can recommend is FMLA for a while: which I can't do because I couldn't pay the bills. I take my meds every day and I'm sober and exercise regularly, but I'm still struggling.

I don't see the way forward right now and it scares me. All I can think is that I have to keep working somehow but I worry that I literally am incapable.

Thoughts? (I'm in the US)

Title says it. I'm curious to find out how maybe people here have co-morbid conditions. I saw an article of lots of AFAB autistic people getting misdiagnosed with bipolar as well as BPD. But what if you have the autism diagnosis first? How do they decide if it's two separate things? Because I'm fairly sure they class as co-morbidy too. Most neurological divergency overlaps after all.

Tourettes I know has co-morbidy with Bipolar Tourettes has co-morbidy with ADHD so does that link them too. Autism is hidden by "Bipolar symptoms" and or "BPD symptoms".

If you are autistic and found out you were bipolar what caused you to find out? Was it something you brought up or the health care provider? Does this work differently for bp1 and bp2?

Ps sorry for the ramble I have only been sleeping 4 hours each night but you guys get it.

I’m depressed and angry and irritable. I feel like there’s a switch coming and I’m afraid I can’t stop it. I’m also only in the process of being diagnosed bipolar, still don’t think I have it (but know there’s something not right), and am seeing a psychiatrist at the end of December. I can’t do it anymore. I just had a session with my therapist yesterday and it went well, she’s literally amazing and so patient but I’m so, so depressed and typically have strong SH urges before a mood switch and they’re coming on so strongly right now.

Do any of you still need sleep or still sleep while having the opposite of depressed pole symptoms? I ask because I don’t have typical hypomanic symptoms. They are more mixed with irritability. And then I also at least try to sleep by taking meds because I know I need to. Sometimes I question the diagnosis for this reason and wondered if there are others out there-

Hi there. I'm really not sure why I'm making this post, I guess I would just like some advice, maybe even some brutal honesty since I feel lost.

I recently got together and spoke to one of my family members who's worked in the psychiatric field for a really long time and I asked her some advice about some hallucinations/imsomnia I was experiencing and how I had been previously waved off about it when I brought them to the attention of a psychiatrist years ago. That psychiatrist claimed they were symptoms of my anxiety and not real hallucinations that I was experiencing because I wasn't hearing things? It was odd. We have a history of Bipolar 1 in our family and she very clearly told me she thinks I'm showing many symptoms of the disorder, particular the episodes I have of depression, mood swings, and the way that I only experience psychosis during higher stress times when I feel restless or agitated.

I ended up seeing my primary doc and she also agreed that it sounds like Bipolar Disorder w/ psychotic features. She suggested that I meet with a psychiatrist and get back to her about the diagnosis to make sure I'm stable since I wasn't sleeping much when I met with her.

Now I guess it seems pretty self explanatory I should do that but- my plans for my career are at risk if I'm diagnosed. I had considered a backup plan to be in the military and was going to take ROTC in college to continue to pay off my tuition and later join after I graduate. I feel like my world is crashing down. I know that there's many career opportunities outside of the military but it's something I've always had at the back of my mind. I guess it's making me hesitant to really go through with it (I still contacted an agency and am waiting on an appointment)- but, I, myself find it hard to believe I have it.

Does anyone have any experience with a strange aftertaste while on Seroquel? I am noticing an aftertaste but I am not sure if it is just coincidence or the medication!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/acps.13765

I would love to read the full text, but I don't have access. It is about using machine learning to interpret Fitbit data to determine mood patterns.

Edited to add: Thank you! It was DMed to me.

Honestly, between being diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar 2 with mixed features, being constantly in and out of the emergency room and then almost hospitalised, this summer for me has been something straight out of a fucking horror movie. In the space of six months, I went from performing at the top of my university grade and volunteering in local government to someone who can hardly leave the house and is on the verge of losing their mind at any moment.

At present, my days are mostly filled doom scrolling and ruminating about my illness, thinking "will this ever get any better." I can't hold down a job or return to university until next year due to how volatile my moods can be and how bad my anxiety is on a daily basis. Currently, I'm on 400mg of Seroquel XR - my first medication specifically for bipolar - which worked wonderfully at first but now seems to be having little impact at present. I'm still suffering from debilitating anxiety, mood swings between a hypomanic state, to mixed episodes and then depression. So, I have no idea what to do other than think: Am I treatment resistant and just destined to live like this forever?

The only thing keeping me going at the moment is my girlfriend being extremely supportive of me and staying over as much as possible while she juggles nursing school and the thought of me seeing my psychiatrist next week, to see what other med combos/treatments he can think of. I'm honestly open to anything any suggestions with regards to what medication has worked well for you rapid cyclers with mixed features, to even your own personal success stories from when you hit rock bottom - so fire away!

I feel so much regret. I overshared on social media, shared very personal details, became overly religious, ran away from home and wandered around the city, got into a huge argument with relatives on social media because of my delusions, lashed out alot and got into arguments over small matters and quit my good paying job. I've since apologized to my relatives but I can't help but feel awful. Now I isolate myself to avoid conflict.

I recently ruined a relationship by lashing out at my partner in a manic episode. I didn’t realize I was full blown manic until I crashed. We had only been dating for a few months, but it’s over now, and I feel like I can’t handle romantic relationships. They said we could possibly get back together in the future when I figure this all out, but they can’t be here for me right now. It just sucks. I felt like I had found my person. It also sucks because they said they wanted a future with me, kids with me, etc, but they didn’t want to try to stick it out with me. It makes me feel like a monster.

Even before the official breakup, I got help, my diagnosis changed from 2 to 1, I went back to weekly (was doing biweekly) therapy, and I started lithium. I never really felt like Lamotrigine did anything for me and I feel like the lithium is helping to calm my thoughts. I’ve only been on it a month now though.

I grew up in a very toxic household, parents fought all the time, alcoholic dad, physical abuse, etc. I’m also diagnosed with C-PTSD.

I guess my thing is - I have had a habit of picking men who are not necessarily great to me or for me. I felt like this one was different, we had so much in common, but I’m not so sure now. My sister labeled them a “walking red flag”.

Is it possible to find healthy love with bipolar? Is it possible that some people set off our episodes? Are there men out there who will be understanding, calm, and supportive to a bipolar partner?

I’m so scared that I ruin all of my relationships, but I feel like these bad relationships have actually really made my episodes drastically worse. Is it inherent that romantic relationships will set me off? Or is it just that I haven’t found the right one?

And I guess my last thing is, how do I go back to the dating world after this keeps happening? I hadn’t dated for almost 2 years before meeting my most recent ex, had absolutely no interest in anyone until I met them. And I am very happy with my single life. I have great friends, supportive grandparents, plenty of hobbies, 2 great jobs and I’m going back to school. I’m getting close to 30 and I just feel lonely I guess.

1. Make a to-do list. Yeah ik basic but order the items from most important/urgent to least important/urgent. 2. Swallow the frog. Get the most important/most time consuming thing done first. 3. Finish your first project before starting another. Force yourself ik it's hard but it's possible. 4. Break down big tasks into smaller more manageable ones. 5. Reward yourself for getting shit done. Buy something SMALL, watch your favorite show, etc. 6. Trade perfect for done. You're not going to be able to give your best in this state so don't be too hard on yourself. If you can't focus I highly recommend using Pomodoro or Flowtime method of study. Do something enjoyable on your breaks. You got this the semester is almost over!!!

Hi all,

I’m currently on Lithium, Sertraline, Lamotrigine and Olanzapine, and have been on this combo for over a year.

I’ve only recently started getting a dry mouth, and am aware all 4 drugs carry that as a side effect. Is there any one of the 4 that is particularly notorious for this?

I did have a temporary increase in the dosage of my Olanzapine about a week ago, but the dry mouth hasn’t resolved since coming down. If it is that, could it be that it takes a while for the excess Olanzapine to be cleared from the body?

Just wanted to share my experience with Olanzapine and weight. The biggest side effect of Olanzapine is weight gain, mostly caused by the increase of appetite. However, I was able to contrast this side adding metformin 1500. The appetite is now normal and I was to able to loose a ton of weight. Just don't lose hopes. Olanzapine, when well tolerated, is possibly the most effective medication for bipolar. At least this is true in my case.

Who else out there feels the same? I just can’t get over the thought that I don’t have bipolar disorder. I know the arguments, take your meds etc but I do take my meds and I still think it’s not the right diagnosis. Second opinion says it’s bipolar, I still feel it’s wrong. Anyone else feel the same?

I was at a party last night and I had a good time but I was still struggling. I was disassociating a lot because my meds had worn off from the morning. I have imposing thoughts of other things that didn’t matter. I couldn’t drink and on the drive home I could barely see the road thanks to blurry vision.

I just realized I am different than most people and no amount of meds or therapy is going to change me back to what other people take for granted. It sucks that we are dealt this shit hand.

Hi All,

I hope you are well. If anybody has previously experienced similar, or has advice, I’d love to hear it. I have recently been prescribed 50mg of Sertaline (Zoloft) to take for anxiety symptoms, alongside my 600mg of Lithium and 500mg Sodium Valporate / Depakote.

Last night, I took my first dose of Sertraline and within an hour I was restless, couldn’t sleep, was very hot / cold, confused, and struggled with coordination and walking.

At one point I got pretty worried but eventually managed to sleep and today feel better but still very odd.

Are these just side effects of starting a new medication, or signs of something more concerning? If anyone has insight I’d love to hear from you. I’m away on holiday tomorrow but will be speaking with my psychiatrist when they are next at work but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you