I was seeing the same pdoc for 10 years. Somewhere near the end I found I had all this energy and decided to go for a walk, but that just wasn't enough. Went into my grocery store...the lights looked unusually bright and thought I could get away with anything. I ended up attepting to steal $138.40 worth of groceries. I got caught. Nother customer saw me. Went to jail. Got out on a recogicence bond. Decided I just kinda didn't do it right and about a year later did the same thing again. I got caught. During the time I was in the second time, I was on a too low dose of lithium. So what happens? They run out, so I don't get any. I don't get my benzo's of course because they are narcotics. So all I got was my cymbalta. I slept maybe an hour a night. The first night I got up to go to the bathroom and the room started to spin. I had never experienced this before, I barely made it back to bed and everyone woke up because I knocked over a table...finally a human guard came and took me to the infirmary. My blood pressure was sky high. The nurse told me so and I saw it. I said, it's always been that way in the pdoc's office and they just tell me their equipment is off...lovely, huh? So they I get appointed a lawyer 3 days later. I love her, she's great. She set me up with the mental health liason since I chose probation (2 years!). They have a special program for us mentally ill folk. I just wanted out of there. I was dizzy and couldn't sleep well. I told my atty about them not having my meds...she was steaming mad about that...but I guess not too much because they didn't give me my lithum until a bout a week later. While I was incarerated with this "women", I noticed a higher than average pregnancy rate that the general population. I was not curious enough to ask. Also during rec time in the "yard", there is more business going on out there than in most board rooms of major corporations. I learned there is a street drug called special K which is a horse tranq that is now sold on the streets. Everyone was bragging about how their dealer was better than other dealers. Saw some moms that would get out of jail, get pregnant and then go back in. Lovely lifestyle. While I was in the doctors office, a police officer asked me why I just didn't put my head down when I got dizzy...I was standing up when it initially happened. I wanted to punch him in the face! Finally, my court day arrives and I am approved for the probation for the mentally ill. I was given release papers and told that I would be realeased that evenening. Guess what didn't happen that evening, or the next or the next? You know the court system is messed up when you get a message from a guard that your probation officer is mad because you didn't show up to probation that next day (I wrote back and told her I was still being detained and to cool her heels. Never tell a probation officer to cool her heels. Anyway, 3 days later my attorney calls me to appologise and say that my "cause number" was transposed and someone else got out under my name. I told her I hoped it wasn't a murderer. So I got to spend 3 extra days in jail because some stupid court clerk has dyslexia?! I finally get out. My probation offer tells me not to telll my mental health clinic I am a verteran (teaching me morals already huh?). I was asked directly if I was a verteran and so I couldn't lie. That day, I was cut off meds, taken out of there system and told I don't qualify for their program. I have been telling them for 10 years that I am a verteran and now all of a sudden it matters?! They said it always matters but some of the care providers don't care. Sometimes I think the only reason the county mental health system exists, is to medicate the homeless and low income population so they don't bother the other fine, upstanding citizens of this fair city. My PO turned out to be a real beotch. She would move appointments around and blame them on you. I learned early on to carry that written appoint slip with me...I finally caught her and she looked at the slip in her own handwriting like it was written in greek, but she couldn't deny I was complying. I was so glad to get the hell off of probation. I've never met so many evil people in my life. Fortunately, I was qualified for the VA health benefits. I told my doc what I was on and she was shocked. She said the reason I went manic is that YOU CANNOT TAKE IBPROFIN WITH LITHIUM, IT CONCENTRATES IT AND THEREFORE RENDERS IT INEFFECTIVE. So basically, I went to jail because I am mentally ill. My mom wanted to put me in a home. She's nuttier than me. She can go suck a wet one as far as I am concerned. Well, that is my lovely story of how I was rediagnosed. Please excuse the rant. I want to blog but still waiting on DocJohn's approval.