Thank you, Beth, I really appreciate it!

Med-wise, I'm sticking with lamotrigine for now, and the plan is to try adding lithium again if that's not enough. I'm not a fan of anti-depressants because of the side-effects and the risk of mixed features. I did try bupropion before the ECT, as sort of a last-ditch effort, but all it did was give me high blood pressure and irritability, so I gave up on that. As I mentioned in another thread, I also do well on Seroquel, and it's somewhat tempting to me because it makes me sleep well, but I'm holding off on that because of the side-effects and keeping it just as a PRN for now.

I'm glad you agree on the psychotherapy part! I'm really looking forward to starting that, because I notice multiple times every day that there's a sadness and sometimes also an anger weighing on me. In a sense, though, I'm glad that at least now I'm able to experience those feelings in a more normal and healthy way, and I'm able to experience happiness again besides the sadness as well. It feels very different from the way I felt when the depression was at its most severe, when there was just hopelessness and despair and nothing else. The tough part is that my therapist is on a pretty long vacation right now, has been for a few weeks, and won't be back for another two weeks or so, which means that for now I have to deal with these feelings on my own.

IP-SRT stands for Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, which is a therapy for bipolar disorder that's more or less a combination of interpersonal psychotherapy and the "SRT" part, which basically focuses on creating a steady schedule with social and other cues that aim to stabilize your circadian rhythm, which is supposed to help stabilize your mood. So basically it's more or less what I'm trying to do right now. It's supposed to be very effective, according to what I've read and heard. The "IP" part can focus on different things, one of which is the trauma and grieving due to the depression itself.

I like the idea of adding the concept of priorities to my schedule/plan! That way it will be less overwhelming trying to decide what to do first. I'll try that, thanks again!