I was first Bipolar II, then Bipolar I, but I doubt that I "turned" into Bipolar I - rather, my first p-doc was a clueless idiot who misdiagnosed me.

I had a manic depressive mother who found doctors who were willing to treat her with high (HIGH) doses of Elavil alone. Elavil is a very old tricyclic AD. It should not be used in bipolar disorder without a back-up in the form of a MS or AP or both. Without such back-up, it makes a person manic. She enjoyed mania and thought mania was a good thing, so she craved Elavil. I myself take a microscopic dose of Elavil for sleep but taken with Lithium and Geodon it causes no mania (plus my dose is barely perceptible). Her manias and depressions definitely became worse with age, but I think that it was due to her kind of "treatment".

I have become better over the years on appropriate drugs. I am at a point where it is boring to open Optimism Online or Moodtracker.com because I would select the mid-point or baseline mood in each application every single day. I am that stable. But I have to find an alternative to Geodon and we will see where my moods will be while I am looking for something equally effective but not "offending".