Hi! I've recently been diagnosed with bipolar 2 and am looking for other people to share experiences and advice with. Long story short, I started having depressive episodes since I was 12, and antidepressants saved my life when I was 15. Since then an antidepressant worked for about a year, and then I would switch, and that usually worked. Fast forward, I became pregnant when I was 28, was on Zoloft during that time and breastfeeding, and after I stopped breastfeeding my whole world shifted. I've been irritable, depressed, all over he place. I went back onto the anti depressant I was on before, Pristiq, and it did not help at all and made me more agitated. I'm a family therapist, have had lots of therapy around my depression, so I've always been good at knowing coping skills and what my body and brain needed, and nothing I was trying helped. My mom was diagnosed with bipolar 2 at the age of 65, and since I could not figure out what was going on with me, I went and got checked out, and lo and behold I got diagnosed as well. Since then I've been taken off the Pristiq, slowly ramping up on Lamictal, and my doctor wants to start abilify since I've been extremely depressed (I think the pristiq helped with depression, but was making me way agitated, irritable and at times aggressive.) I'm currently on medical leave from my job, which is way stressful and I'm realizing I need a change. After being diagnosed (which I was in shock, I'm used to seeing bipolar 1 manic episodes in clients and I've never had that ) I've been reading a lot and things make a lot more sense about what I'm going through. I guess I have some questions. And someone let me know if I should post them on the general board to get more feedback.

Has anyone else had symptoms of the mood fluctuation get more severe or really show up after having a baby?

What are people's experience with Lamical and Abilify? I'm nervous about that one.

How do people reduce their stress when they still need to work full time?

What's been the most helpful thing your partner can do when you are having an episode or struggling with symptoms?

Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to learning more and getting to know people in this group!