I have suffered from Major Depression for the better part of 20 years now. I've gone through many doctors and meds and have figured out a good cocktail for now. For a few years I was taking Abilify and Latuda, alternately. They worked really well for my mood (but only for a year at a time, then I had to switch to the other one. ???). I think I did this for about 4 years. Ultimately the side effects of those meds became too much and they just became ineffective so I had to stop taking them.
In that time I had the same doctor for about 2 years. Given that I was having a helpful reaction to these meds, she changed my diagnosis to Bipolar II (I think). Now, I have NEVER had a manic episode. In fact, fatigue is and has always been my number one complaint. She mentioned something about my bouts with irritability maybe acting as "mania".
In this time, I have also suffered from insomnia. I have been taking Seroquel for that for a long time at very small doses. 25mg for a long time, then 50, and now 100. My newest doctor wanted me to come down off of it so I started titrating get down to 50mg. But something surprising happened. My sleep changed a little, but it was the change in my mood that was surprising. My mood became sunken, I was losing interest in things, and then just felt straight up depressed. I was truly baffled at why coming off the Seroquel would make me feel this way.
I was supposed to go see my doctor, but she got sick and had to cancel. I couldn't handle it anymore, so I went back up to 100mg. The next morning I felt 100% better. Back to normal.
So I'm starting to wonder if there wasn't something to my old docs bipolar diagnosis. Has anyone else had an experience like this where a diagnosis was presented based solely on your positive reaction to certain medications?