[RLW1974]

First of all, let me state that I have excellent doctors--both a great therapist and psychiatrist who are staying on top of my Bipolar 1, OCD (which takes the form of intrusive thoughts which are aggressive and sexual in nature), and my anxiety.

My dilemma is this:

When I am slightly hypomanic and a little bit beyond, my intrusive thoughts and anxiety go away. However, when my psychiatrist reigns in my mood through an increase in a mood stabilizer, my intrusive thoughts and/or anxiety returns.

Now, I know my mood state must always be stayed on top of, especially considering that I have Bipolar 1 and thus have the potential for psychosis. Yet, I must think there has to be other people out there who experience a similar situation as mine. In other words, I wouldn't mind a normal mood as long as it didn't come with increased thoughts and angst.

My psychiatrist states this is just my individual mental constellation and path. However, I don't accept this. I have tried to call doctors around the country to see if they have come across situations like I have explained above, but they are hesitant to speak to non-patients. Thus, I have decided to speak to other bi-polar sufferers.

If any of you face a similar situation, I would love to hear from you. Have you learned to solve the issue? Did particular meds help crack this case? What did you and your doctor learn about this relationship as I explained above? Etc. etc.

I would truly appreciate feedback on this issue. For it is quite frustrating.

Thank you

[1963.Susan]

i call it being "Tigger" - as in Winnie the Pooh. Tigger is "bouncy bouncy bouncy bouncy fun fun fun fun fun!" & that's what a little hypomania is like - FUN! but like you said, we can't let it go & morph into psychosis & a true hypomanic state (which mine come with delusions & hallucinations). so we have to squash Tigger. which i hate. in squashing Tigger i don't experience the same return of problems that you do, except for perhaps the anxiety. Tigger doesn't get anxious. but if you get PAST Tigger, then the anxiety comes. and the anxiety comes BEFORE Tigger.
ymmv. lol

[looking4polaris]

Hypomania is so seductive. It's like the thrill of getting away with something naughty, I think. It's too bad mania can suck so bad. I had some similar troubles when my mood was in check...more with the constant intrusive thoughts and slightly less with anxiety. It just so happened that during a normal mood phase my pdoc added ADHD to my diagnosis and tried me on meds for that. When we added the ADHD meds...poof... the nagging thoughts and anxiety went right away.

I worried the anxiety would get worse because I've observed that side effect with my kid's meds, but it had the exact opposite effect for me. I also slept way better once I started the ADHD meds (haven't had to take a sleeping pill in months). I still take my mood stabilizer, too. I've found the ADHD med makes "normal" mood much more bearable for me. Of course, I'm not suggesting that you would have the same results, but that was my personal experience.

[spiritual_emergency]

When I am slightly hypomanic and a little bit beyond, my intrusive thoughts and anxiety go away. However, when my psychiatrist reigns in my mood through an increase in a mood stabilizer, my intrusive thoughts and/or anxiety returns.

Just a thought...

Is it possible that your sense of self-confidence improves when you're slightly hypomanic? If so, perhaps some form of talk therapy could help you improve your confidence levels across the board and that might assist you in reducing your med levels.

Meantime, this discussion might also be of interest to you: Do you need meds. You may find it helpful to follow up on the few people noted who are getting by without meds and paying careful attention to whatever alternate support methods they incorporated into their overall treatment to see if the same might work for you.

If that approach appeals to you, I would strongly recommend that you incorporate the alternate measures into your life first and if things are going well, then begin a slow and supervised med adjustment.

Best of luck.

~ Namaste

[ilazria]

Intrusive thoughts and anxiety are a major issue for me. My mood stabilizer prevents most hypomanic episodes, but it seems like that just gives my brain too much "down time" to think. Thinking isn't usually good for me. I will rip myself up, down, left and right, replaying old embarrassing moments, self flagellating for the smallest mistakes, or creating whole episodes of misery out of nothing. I've started taking an anti-psychotic, which seems to help with the ugly and paranoid thoughts, as well as anti-anxiety meds for when I get ramped up.

[reader1587]

Originally Posted by RLW1974

First of all, let me state that I have excellent doctors--both a great therapist and psychiatrist who are staying on top of my Bipolar 1, OCD (which takes the form of intrusive thoughts which are aggressive and sexual in nature), and my anxiety.

My dilemma is this:

When I am slightly hypomanic and a little bit beyond, my intrusive thoughts and anxiety go away. However, when my psychiatrist reigns in my mood through an increase in a mood stabilizer, my intrusive thoughts and/or anxiety returns.

Now, I know my mood state must always be stayed on top of, especially considering that I have Bipolar 1 and thus have the potential for psychosis. Yet, I must think there has to be other people out there who experience a similar situation as mine. In other words, I wouldn't mind a normal mood as long as it didn't come with increased thoughts and angst.

My psychiatrist states this is just my individual mental constellation and path. However, I don't accept this. I have tried to call doctors around the country to see if they have come across situations like I have explained above, but they are hesitant to speak to non-patients. Thus, I have decided to speak to other bi-polar sufferers.

If any of you face a similar situation, I would love to hear from you. Have you learned to solve the issue? Did particular meds help crack this case? What did you and your doctor learn about this relationship as I explained above? Etc. etc.

I would truly appreciate feedback on this issue. For it is quite frustrating.

Thank you

First off I would ask what do *you* think might be going on? You don't have to have the definite answer, but no one has a better *sense* of what's going on with you than you, and sometimes the most anecdotal or even quasi-incoherent description/explanation of the experience can give valuable clues to what's going on.

Also you state that you have a great psychiatrist and therapist, however the former thinks this is a state of affairs which you simply have to accept. Has does your therapist feel about the issue(s)? Have you had success in the past, through your therapy, of not just coming to terms with your symptoms of anxiety and/or intrusive thoughts, but of resolving and/or working through some of them? (iow, have you been able to challenge successfully some of the flawed thinking that goes into creating these experiences, if that's an explanatory model that you accept?)

P.S. I do not have the same kind(s) of symptoms, I am just trying to help. I also thought the post by spiritual_emergency was a good one, fwiw.