and what do you think bipolar disorder is like besides the stereotypes, what would you like it to be seen?

I have bipolar II, I am very very afraid of physcotic symptoms, is that particularly common for the Bipolar?

Has anyone experienced severe mania after quitting THC. I've been off it for weeks. At some point I got insomnia after switching from flower to a pen. So I stopped the pen. I've stopped everything and Ive slept maybe a week all together in the past month. Has anyone else experienced insomnia after quitting THC?

Was in a bad depressive episode until adding Cymbalta a few months ago. Sugar cravings were down, less afternoon naps, hungry for food other than cereal and ice cream, etc. Yet here we are, unable to sleep while effortlessly increasing the speed on the treadmill and looking at another round of antipsychotics. If you made it this far, have a GREAT rest of your weekend!

Hey hope you're having a good day or night. So I told my boyfriend about when I had my mania and hospital stays. He took it well. Was very kind. Just feel exposed in a way and kinda want to run away from the relationship because of feeling exposed? One time i told one of my friend and she always had excuses not to meet up. Can anyone relate about this feeling of being "exposed" and wanting to hide away when you told people. How did you overcome it? Thanks.

My sister was just diagnosed MDD + Bipolar 1 last Oct 5. Before this diagnosis, she already was diagnosed MDD + PTSD and was taking sertraline gradually increased from 50 to 200mg over a period of 8-9months. She started taking Divalproex, olanzapine, sertraline continued but brought down to 50 until tapered off. This new medication only started Oct6. It looked like she was responding to it until Oct 15, our family noticed changes. In the morning, she went to drive with my dad running at only 20kph, they switched and noticed she was wearing different slippers. They ate and dad noticed she was disoriented. She came home slept and then for a few minutes stood up no pants on walked around the house and slept again. This repeated for about 6 times until we brought her to ER the same night. Her eyes were open, iris seemed to be on different direction, unusual movement of hands like wiping her face softly, she would also drool during this time, until she slept. She woke up at midnight in the ER and was confused about what happened, does not know where she is and cannot remember what happened to her in the last 14hrs. She would sometimes not recognize family members in the ER and then suddenly remembers. We then admitted her to neuro psych ward. This is the first instance we have seen her this way. Is it part of an episode of Bipolar 1? what was that? and is she coming back to coherence?

She is now admitted, we cannot visit her. On the first day she was participating in ward activities, requested for food, mostly sleeping and then first night became a bit aggressive that she was restrained. 2nd day mostly sleeping but still not coherent sometimes. She would say “papa” and irrelevant words thereafter.

is there anyone who experienced this? I need help to understand this situation because she has kids.

Manic me is awful but man, I get some pretty cool tattoos. I don’t regret them somehow. Anyone else have something positive come out of the chaos?

I was having really bad side effects from my Vraylar so my doctor took me off of it and prescribed me a new medicine . But I’m waiting to start it because I’m scared. I started Vraylar in June, went up to 3mg in August , and I have had nausea every single day since taking the medicine. I stopped it two days ago and I feel like the nausea is already 10x better. Has anyone else experienced this? I was also throwing up almost everyday being on it. Wondering if it was my body rejecting the medicine or something else. Pls lmk if you had any bad side effects from Vraylar!

I (31M BP1) started drinking heavily when I was 18 and did not stop until last December. Did a whole range of powders and pills regularly in my twenties which I cut out also. This month I mustered everything to quit nicotine and I have done it! No withdrawals anymore no cravings.

This is the first day in my adult life substance free and the feeling of peace is legendary. I often talked to you guys about my addiction troubles and you offered kind words that kept me going so thank you!

I feel like life has only just begun!

It’s sooooo fucking annoying like just shut up. Am I not allowed to be happy or excited anymore?

I've been diagnosed for years and have a deep family history of bipolar but i've always been very, very paranoid that I'm faking it or just acting on symptoms that I know are "bipolar" if that makes sense. One thing that makes me feel like perhaps I'm making all of this up is that hypo/mania to me always feels like a desire/urge. There's like a voice in my head asking me if I wanna play the game. To me, it feels more like giving in as opposed to something thats entirely beyond my control. I get this insatiable urge to stay up, deprive myself of nourishment, and just let me thoughts go crazy. I usually have "spiritual awakenings", some of them homestly somewhat reasonable, but they always absolve me of my suffering (depression). I am 1000% without a doubt convinced my depression will never return.

Last depressive episode I had, I could literally feel my brain fall through the cracks. I was driving home from my sisters house and all of the sudden I just felt it. I went home and I quite literally got on my knees and prayed to God if he's there to please not let it be another depressive episode. And then I asbolutely plummeted. Complete suicidal depression. Paranoid, having depressive delusions, etc. Was almost hospitalized but talked myself out of it.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that my depressive episodes are real. I have the scars to prove that. But maybe my mania is faked because It feels like something I indulge in. Idk. Anyone else? God I hate being crazy

My doctor is trying to decide between bpd/bipolar and both. Currently she thinks bpd is there and bipolar maybe?

I had near full blown psyhotic experience (paranoid fear of paranormal presence and being attacked by that thing).

I told her that but during that time i also had 4 mood swings in 4 months (hypomania 2x and 2 moderate depressions with passive si). She says that its way to frequent for bipolar. But at same time i showed genuine hypomania symptoms 3 times during last year but only one severe depression where i had active SI.

Im happy that my doctor is still not giving up and trying to push for my diagnosis even though i went off meds after last hypomania...

So i want to know how does BPD affect you who have it both?

I would really like to fix myself. I see BPD in myself but nowhere near stereotypical examples. For bipolar, also same thing, i hit hypomania pretty good. Issue is that im sick of myself feeling so down compared to others most of the time and then having period of being normal/productive where i just again repeat the cycle.

But also i have some "depression lifts" during depression. For example i can feel extremely depressed but talking a bit and socialising a bit makes my mood TEMPORARILY lift a bit to almost baseline and as soon as specific topic passes im back to down, especially when alone, just doom scrolling even though i would like to do other stuff (my hobbies and etc), i just cant get myself to do it. I dont know if depression can even represent itself that way.

I do feel emotions sometimes really good and I USED TO react to them like someone with BPD would react, but that was years ago. I now (25 years old) KNOW that its inappropriate to react like that and that i wont achieve anything by reactinf like that and i know that some of emotions are just overwhelming without actually needing to be that overwhelming.

So my main question is how does BPD affect you in different episodes of BD?

I love this time of year but I’m trying very hard not to eat all the candy I bought to hand out.

So you may have seen my previous posts. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any links to things that actually explain the criteria for mania? My friends hear of me doing one (1) thing that might not be advised and instantly are like you're manic. Apart from the fact that that simply isn't true, it also makes me less likely to be willing to consider it even if it actually was the case.

I feel like everything I've found just says the same things and using the same examples, but really what I'm looking for is something that breaks down each criterion, provides examples of what are and aren't mania, and especially clarifies what the severity might look like to separate it from just someone who is doing very well and stably, and someone who is actually some flavour of manic.

Anything that also provides tips and information around identifying a manic episode in oneself would also be appreciated.

I'm just really new to all of this and I'm lost as to where to find that kind of resource.

Any one willing to share how many mg they take for bipolar mania or schizophrenia ?

Your feedback is much appreciated

[TW]

I just had a trauma response and it’s triggering all of my mixed emotions… I just had one a little over a week ago and it triggered a deep depression after lasting 2 1/2 days… I’m in a severe fight or flight mode… I was just getting stoned and all of a sudden a traumatic event happens… I feel like I wanna run away to LA and start a new life down there… I wanna kms in California… it’s getting so bad and the nearest hospital doesn’t do good with mental health… I don’t wanna be locked in a room again… I was just fine until the event happened… I’m scared!! I swear I just saw a UFO not too long ago and now I’m paranoid that I’ll be some sort of alien type creature in a few hours… I feel like I’m a Hollywood star!! Shit’s getting bad fast!!!

Can anyone please help calm me down…

I’m in hell!!!

I am a bit confused. Isn’t this dangerous? Won’t I start hallucinating again?! There was one time I didn’t take my Olanzapine (when I was discharged, they didn’t send my meds) and I started hallucinating like crazy of my past traumas.

I'm on large doses of seroquel and tegretol. I take a neglible dose of olanzapine. I feel like olanzapine at 2.5mg is actually increasing my sex drive. Any experience of this?

Hey y’all. I was in a depressive episode from Aug and it seemed like it was clearing up over the last week or so but I’m down in the dumps again. Just trying to push through and would love something I can laugh at when I get off of work today. Thanks in advance!

Hello all. Currently looking for advice regarding medication. So far I've tried up to 1500mg depakote er (didn't do shit but give me vertigo) olanzapine, risperidone, and trileptal (made me more hypomanic) and now lithium which I quit today because it gave me a really bad tinnitus flare.

My pdoc has brought up lamictal before but depression isn't my problem so I'm hesitant.

And for background I'm hypomanic dominant bipolar 2. Basically I'm hypomanic all the time, then I'll crash for a week or 2 and be excessively sleepy. But I'm always anxious and unstable with racing thoughts regardless. Even during a crash.

Hey, diagnosed BP1 and I have a pending OCD diagnosis. Screening done yesterday but it would make sense. I haven’t brought it up to anyone yet, but I stopped taking my meds about 4-5 days ago, after about 3 weeks of taking them. I don’t have any symptoms right now outside of depression which started back in August, before I started meds. I plan to bring it up to my therapist tonight and to my psychiatrist at some point, and I know this is generally a bad idea, but I just can’t seem to do anything to convince myself to take them right now.

I just want to know, I guess, how long after you guys quit your meds did something happen? I have a lot of good stuff going for me right now and I don’t want to screw it up…so maybe hearing from other people will help me get back on track. I only got diagnosed this year, and had my first manic episode (without psychotic symptoms, just acute) last year. I have had very few and far between psychotic symptoms during this depressive episode. I’ve done nothing to really screw my life up…and I keep doubting my diagnosis even though logically it makes sense…I have two schizoaffective parents. I don’t really know what I’m looking for. Maybe just some community or some understanding. Thanks in advance.

My dr is switching me from caplyta to vraylar, she said I needed a heavier hitter. I have mixed bipolar, so it’s been really a long journey trying to find the right meds. I’m also on Remeron, propanolol, buspar, zofran, adderall, and Levothyroxine. I get really manic and have episodes of manic psychosis, and I had one this past weekend, for multiple reasons or triggers, whatever. Point being, we’re trying to figure out how to get the mania more under control. Has anyone switched these same meds?