[ilazria]

My kids are driving me around the bend. They're not even really doing anything wrong. I'm snapping and yelling about stupid things like them getting into things, or not cleaning up after I ask them to. I mean, yes, they need to mind, but it's not like me yelling at full bellow helps. I try so hard to start off calm, but I escalate so fast right now. I'm so tired of them thinking that anything in my room is fine for them to play with, or that me saying "please put that stuff away" means just move it around a little. I try to get away from them for a bit to calm down, but that's when they start getting into other things, or fighting with each other.

I'm so short on patience that my daughter's constant requests to do things, like 1. Make banana bread, 2. make rice crispy treats, 3. make posters and put them in her friends mailboxes, 4. fingerpaint, 5. play with her violin, which I've already told her repeatedly that she needs to wait until her lessons start so her teacher can show her how to handle it properly..... and all sorts of other requests.

I can tell my kids are getting gun-shy, waiting for me to yell. Multiple times today I've managed to step back and get back to a calmer starting point, but it takes moments for me to go back to yelling. I try to tell them that I don't mean to be yelling, that it isn't anything they've done, that I'm just really tense and that I am trying very hard not to yell. I know that it is just normal behavior for their age, but I just can't step back. I'm tired as hell, and the anger is wearing me out. I'm trying to stuff it down, but this emotion just refuses to be contained. I keep looking at the clock, just waiting for bedtime.

This has been going on for a few weeks now. I've been taking my anti-anxiety meds to try and chill me out, which helps a little, but tonight, not so much. It just seems to have made me sleepy, and there is still an hour until I can reasonably send them to bed. Arg!

[Slothrop]

I tend to associate the irritability with hypomania...but that's not a clinical opinion.

I have anger issues more when I'm not "stabilized" enough...drugs like lithium, Lamictal, and Abilify have helped with that.

Wellbutrin made me quick to anger. Some folks seem to have that reaction to various antidepressants.

[lonegael]

When I get going like that I generally am a) on the way down, b) on the way into switching to a mixed episode. How long has this been going on? Hugggs at any rate.

[ilazria]

It's been going on for about a month now, maybe longer. I have such a hard time judging time anymore. Yesterday feels like a week ago, feels like a year ago.... it all just feels the same. I'm pretty sure it started around the same time that I started the risperidone. It feels like the PMS from hell.

[Navygrrl]

For me, the yelling and ever-increasing irritibility are signs that I am getting hypomanic, which inevitably turns into a huge raging episode where I feel like I'm watching myself rage, knowing that I need to stop but unable to. You mentioned an anti-anxiety med, but what other meds are you on? Do you have a pdoc or T? I always have a huge crash after this type of hypomanic episode, so hopefully you don't follow that pattern. I know it always sucks more when it involves my kids, and seeing fear in their eyes is just devastating.