Quote:
Originally Posted by RLW1974
First of all, let me state that I have excellent doctors--both a great therapist and psychiatrist who are staying on top of my Bipolar 1, OCD (which takes the form of intrusive thoughts which are aggressive and sexual in nature), and my anxiety.
My dilemma is this:
When I am slightly hypomanic and a little bit beyond, my intrusive thoughts and anxiety go away. However, when my psychiatrist reigns in my mood through an increase in a mood stabilizer, my intrusive thoughts and/or anxiety returns.
Now, I know my mood state must always be stayed on top of, especially considering that I have Bipolar 1 and thus have the potential for psychosis. Yet, I must think there has to be other people out there who experience a similar situation as mine. In other words, I wouldn't mind a normal mood as long as it didn't come with increased thoughts and angst.
My psychiatrist states this is just my individual mental constellation and path. However, I don't accept this. I have tried to call doctors around the country to see if they have come across situations like I have explained above, but they are hesitant to speak to non-patients. Thus, I have decided to speak to other bi-polar sufferers.
If any of you face a similar situation, I would love to hear from you. Have you learned to solve the issue? Did particular meds help crack this case? What did you and your doctor learn about this relationship as I explained above? Etc. etc.
I would truly appreciate feedback on this issue. For it is quite frustrating.
Thank you
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First off I would ask what do *you* think might be going on? You don't have to have the definite answer, but no one has a better *sense* of what's going on with you than you, and sometimes the most anecdotal or even quasi-incoherent description/explanation of the experience can give valuable clues to what's going on.
Also you state that you have a great psychiatrist and therapist, however the former thinks this is a state of affairs which you simply have to accept. Has does your therapist feel about the issue(s)? Have you had success in the past, through your therapy, of not just coming to terms with your symptoms of anxiety and/or intrusive thoughts, but of resolving and/or working through some of them? (iow, have you been able to challenge successfully some of the flawed thinking that goes into creating these experiences, if that's an explanatory model that you accept?)
P.S. I do not have the same kind(s) of symptoms, I am just trying to help. I also thought the post by spiritual_emergency was a good one, fwiw.