[Darth Bane]

I just watched his emmy award winning documentary "Stephen Fry The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive" and i loved it ...i think he is as great actor as Hugh Laurie (House M.D.) ... I am huge fan of both..

I am actually very grateful for this documentary ... it helped and helping me in dark times...in it Stephen fry finds out his bipolar symptoms are getting worse(mine are definitely not getting better ) and he is thinking about starting Lithium.....

he was not on any meds then... currently i am not on any meds... but my brief experience with antidepressants is not at all great... i never felt that down in my life except weeks after i stopped those...

i have to think carefully before taking Lithium... if one starts and stops lithium, its worse than never taking lithium ... discontinued lithium usage increases s****e risk,number of depressive episodes... so if i start using it,it will be for life.. but currently i have spent 4 years in last 10 years in depressive episodes....

[Clinte89]

I think he is, i saw the documentary myself on youtube and thought it was excellent. Im on lithium and it has helped me greatly pulled me out of a depressive episode. Just helped level me out. Im in a down swing now but thats after a week or so of being mixed so it still happens but not near as bad.

[Darth Bane]

i dont get this "level out" you are talking about ....

lets say i have hypomania 70% time and depression 30% time ... whats result? will i be continuously in happy mood afterwards?
if i have depression 70% time and hypomania 30% time ... whats result? will i be continuously in bad mood afterwards????
how much personality change should i expect?

[Clinte89]

Like I mean you stay more in the middle of the two. Now personality change for me I just got less anger issues. It's not really a numbers game like that it just helps me stay centered I'm not overly depressed or overly hypo. But on some occasions I am but they are rare.

[venusss]

A) I don't think Stephen Fry is on anything. or at least wasn't by the time docu ended.

B) level out = mood level reaches normal without much ups and downs.

[Clinte89]

And I've never heard of it being a lifetime thing I hope one day I can come off all my meds.

[Confusedinomicon]

I am a little lethargic on lithium but it hasn't changed my personality. I cry less on it. Its alo the least damaging in terms of memory issues. I don't get a fog.

I do drink a lot of liquids tho.

Also have a thyroid problem I need checked out so it could be that, too.

[Confusedinomicon]

I forgot to add it doesn't do much for low grade depression. I've been depressed since I graduated university. I think it is a situational depression and my own mental capacity of bringing myself down and not having confidence in myself. I don't think lithium would have helped it.

[Darth Bane]

thanks... i am getting idea how lithium will work ....

but its just about accepting you need meds isnt it??? i perhaps like fact that i am not on any meds... if i start taking them its like telling everyone in my family/gf that i have bipolar...

I should start meds though, BP has screwed my career quite royally... well not really i can/will most probably bounce back... but still.... ouch! taking meds .... its difficult decision.... and i have to be on lithium for at least a year... just to reduce dosage it takes 4 weeks! last time i discontinued antidepressant after 3-4 months it was horrible time for me for next 3 weeks.....

[faerie_moon_x]

I take lithium then I stop taking it. Then I take it again. Right now I have some but I keep forgetting to take it. I take a very low dose of only 300 mg. But before I've been up to 1200 mg but I don't like how I feel. It makes me jittery.

300 mg for me is like someone pushing the volume down button on the t.v. I still have my moods, but they are not so sever. I just feel like instead of going from 10 as a high to 0 as a low, I am more like a 7 as a high and 3 as a low. Just dials me back a bit.

But, I am horrible about remembering to take it. For a while I was able to remember for about 1 month. Now I need to figure that out again.

[Odee]

Ask about other mood stabilizers. Lithium isn't the only one.

[~Christina]

Lithium for a year? weaning down? loss of effectivness? Cant stop and start?

no,no,no,no.

I have never heard of such issues when taking Lithium. I am on 1200mg daily, besides having to increase fluids and a couple blood tests a year... well that is all, It has helped me a lot. I have tried many AP's and loads of MS's with no help or ridiculous side effects.
Just because you choose to take/try a medications doesn't really change how you think about Bipolar or at least that's how I think about it

Hope you find the right decision for you

[Darth Bane]

Originally Posted by Odee

Ask about other mood stabilizers. Lithium isn't the only one.

please tell me the names of others????????i thought lithium is the best there is!!!

[Confusedinomicon]

Lithium works best for classic bipolar. (Data what they say)

There is also lamictal and depakote. Then all the anti psychotics they add to help the ms out.

[Darth Bane]

Originally Posted by morethingswrong

Lithium for a year? weaning down? loss of effectivness? Cant stop and start?

no,no,no,no.

I have never heard of such issues when taking Lithium. I am on 1200mg daily, besides having to increase fluids and a couple blood tests a year... well that is all, It has helped me a lot. I have tried many AP's and loads of MS's with no help or ridiculous side effects.
Just because you choose to take/try a medications doesn't really change how you think about Bipolar or at least that's how I think about it

Hope you find the right decision for you

as i understand lithium is just like antidepressants(SSRIs),but with less side effects...just like when you start taking SSRIs you are gonna feel great after month of taking them... you will be confident enough after 3 months that you would want to stop them, thinking you don't need them anymore... but if you stop then it increases s***e risk,or at least that's what happened with me last time..

that's why i was talking about taking them for year,i think after year you can stop them without feeling that down afterwards...

in that documentary doc is showing one pie chart,telling BP persons spend half of their time battling with depression. and when i thought about it i think he is right... there are three very small mood swings per day for me... and after 3-4 good months there are always 1-2 bad months..

i am starting lithium in next 2 weeks... don't want my family to know.. which will be difficult since doc will make me fill all those forms with name of emergency contact and things...

[Darth Bane]

Originally Posted by Confusedinomicon

Lithium works best for classic bipolar. (Data what they say)

There is also lamictal and depakote. Then all the anti psychotics they add to help the ms out.

lamictal looks useful... especially for Bipolar II... but lithium is with less side effects...and some side effects of Depakote are very interesting...hallucinations... i have never experienced it but i would rather wait for few years for my BP/anything else i have to get worse....

just read article on wikipedia .... tone is very very positive... so Bipolar II is worse than Bipolar I .... great ...

There is evidence to suggest that Bipolar II Disorder has a more chronic course of illness than Bipolar I Disorder.This constant and pervasive course of the illness leads to an increased risk in suicide and more hypomanic and major depressive episodes with shorter periods of time between episodes than Bipolar I patients experience.The natural course of Bipolar II Disorder, when left untreated, leads to patients spending the majority of their lives unwell with much of their suffering stemming from depression.Their recurrent depression results in personal suffering and disability.This disability can present itself in the form of psychosocial impairment, which has been suggested to be worse in Bipolar II patients than in Bipolar I patients

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_II

nice .... very nice

[Confusedinomicon]

BP1 mania tends to get dysphoric the older one gets. Neither one is good. ;P

Lithium doesn't work for everyone either! I have been taking it for over a year. Almost 2 I think. I become emotional if I miss more than 3-4 doses.

It sucks.

I don't experience suicidal thoughts much anymore. I used to think about it all the time.

Originally Posted by VenusHalley

A) I don't think Stephen Fry is on anything. or at least wasn't by the time docu ended...

They didn't ever say. Which I believe was on purpose. Whether he personally is or isn't doesn't really matter, of course. The show set out to be an exploration on the subject of BP. What his decision is as personal as anyone else's, so I think it was wise not to have a de facto endorsement (of any approach) by coming to a conclusion in his ponderings. It kept the focus on BP -- it was personal, but not so personal as to narrow the field to one experience and diminish the educational aspect.

Thanks for bringing it up the other day, Darth -- I've been meaning to watch it for the longest time. I really like him, which makes it even weirder to not have done so. It's quite good. It hit pretty close to home (not surprisingly!) at several junctures, and at one point, phenomenally so. (I'd never had such a strong sense of being utterly inside someone's head as at that moment, let alone a stranger, let alone on a screen! It was freaky.)

[Odee]

Darth Bane: You're gonna have to ask your Psychiatrist about different mood stabilizers because I definitely don't know much more.

I am taking Lamictal for Bipolar II and it has been side effect free for me and that experience is generally very common.

And about the wikipedia excerpt: What matters is not Wikipedia's generalities about your prognosis as much as it is your personal experience. There's great chances that you can exceed Wiki's expectations.


Also, I watched the movie yesterday. Pretty Nice. Sad, though, when you have bipolar symptoms that don't resemble the distinct pattern of happy energetic ups paired with the downs.