Quote:
Originally Posted by Wander
I can't stop sleeping. I sleep nearly 12 hours a night but go back to bed for naps about three times during the day outside of work or university. I am having trouble concentrating and despite all the sleep I am utterly exhausted. Still fairly new to the bipolar diagnosis I am guessing this is depression, although fairly mild on the scale of what I have experienced. There have been some times where my thoughts distort and become disturbing so I take extra Zyprexa (Olanzapine) for that, which helps with those symptoms, but I don;t know what to do about the exhaustion. Do I keep sleeping, or should I force myself to get up and stay up even though I struggle to function due to sleepiness? I am scared I am falling back into a deep depression and I want to nip it in the bud now to prevent that. I don't see my pdoc for three weeks. It is making study so difficult I am scared I may have to pull out. I am only doing one unit as it is due to my health so it would hit me hard to have to pull out completely.
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This is EXACTLY what happens to me during my depressive episodes. No matter how much sleep I get, be it 12 or 18 hours a day, I still feel exhausted, none of it is restful. I just found out I have BP I last week, I was dx'd with PTSD back in 2010, and have dealt with major depression for many years, and the sleep pattern during my depression has always been the same. Sometimes I force myself to do other things when I want to take a nap, other times I give in and nap. It just really depends on how well I think I can handle it.
I know what you mean about making studying difficult—I just had to take an incomplete on a single summer class I took because I can't finish (or even start) the final paper. My depression is just interfering too much. I can't even come up with a topic. I feel like an idiot, but keep telling myself it's just temporary and will pass.
Bottom line though, if you're feeling this worried about it, it wouldn't hurt to try to see pdoc earlier. You're not making a big deal over nothing. It affects you, your life and your goals, it's something, it matters. You could be experiencing depression, but maybe not. Zyprexa can cause drowsiness. Maybe it's just as a simple as needing a med adjustment. Taking more of it like you mentioned might also be making you sleepier. I don't know how long you've been taking it, but if you started it recently you could still be adjusting to it, with the side effects possibly leveling off after awhile. There are many potential reasons, so it'd be best to get pdoc's opinion on everything as a whole. Hang in there!