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Originally Posted by key tones
I had a full-blown manic episode 20 years ago, triggered by diet pill combo Phen-Fen. A psychologist friend told me that didn’t count since it was drug-induced.
[A pdoc] diagnosed me as bipolar type 2. And gave me prescription for propanolol, which caused insomnia...and that triggered another full blown manic event.
So, my current psychiatrist sternly said those drugs don’t trigger mania unless you’re bipolar, and she calls it type 1. She says I’ll get worse if I have more episodes, and I need medication.
Whatever. Really most of the time I fit type 2, depression peppered with hypomania triggered by excitement, like getting a new job
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Yah, exactly. Your psychologist couldn't have been more wrong. It's often by our reaction to a drug or a new situation that bipolar can be detected.
For instance, nobody goes to a doctor when they're feeling great. We only complain to our GP when we're feeling blue. A typical GP never thinks about bipolar. They just prescribe an SSRI, which works for 95% of everyone but can trigger mania or hypomania in us BPs.
So we get nutty, no one knows why, no one thinks it could be from a harmless little SSRI so no one thinks to call in a pdoc, and we don't get adequate treatment. I've read that it typically takes 10 years of seeking help for us to finally get our proper dx.
And you will get worse with more episodes. It's as though the episodes wear down a path for themselves to follow with each episode, so each successive time gets easier and easier for them. Bipolar works physical transformations on the brain. If you don't believe me, go to psycheducation.com and look at the PET brain scans.
So take those meds, my friends and lovers. They suck, they're humiliating, they're an admission of weakness, they make you fat and impotent, and even if you do manage to get going you still can't orgasm... and they're also neuroprotective.
Much as you and I may hate our meds, I hate having something eat my brains even more.
Good Luck.