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Old Aug 17, 2014, 11:24 AM
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Nightside of Eden Nightside of Eden is offline
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Member Since: Feb 2011
Location: Pennsylvania
Posts: 378
Quote:
Originally Posted by inphases View Post
Anyone have had manic episodes that are complete psychotic breaks and use an alternative to lithium? One that doesn't cause weight gain? (my life stabilized so well that I felt brave enough to take off the 125 lbs I need to lose and have lost 52 already!) Thanks to everyone taking time to read this.
You actually have a lot of options. There are several newer atypical anti-psychotics which are weight neutral for a lot of people and help with both depression and mania (Abilify and Latuda are the two that come immediately to mind). Geodon is a slightly older one which is also weight neutral, but not as good against depression. All the old typical anti-psychotics (Haldol, Stelazine, etc) are weight-neutral and excellent against mania and psychosis, though won't help with your depression much. Lamictal is a newer mood stabilizer which has very minimal side-effects compared to lithium. It's not as good against mania as lithium but excellent against bipolar depression and could help you a lot in combination with something like Geodon to prevent the highs.

In short, there's no need to despair for your stability yet.

I'm sure the diabetes is scary, but I've been watching my mother deal with it for 20 years and once you get used to the routine of testing and taking your medication it's really not so bad. Even insulin these days is pretty painless to administer (and you may not need that, depending on how severe your diabetes is).
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Things That Make Me Mentally Interesting:
Bipolar II, ultra-rapid cycling with transient psychotic features
ADD, inattentive type
Separation Anxiety and possible PTSD

Stuff That Helps:
Zyprexa, Stelazine, and Dexedrine