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View Poll Results: How do you envision your life with bipolar? | ||||||
Medication for life |
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6 | 18.18% | |||
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Therapy for life |
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1 | 3.03% | |||
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Medication and therapy for life |
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12 | 36.36% | |||
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Eventually be free from medication and/or therapy |
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9 | 27.27% | |||
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Other |
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5 | 15.15% | |||
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Voters: 33. You may not vote on this poll |
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#1
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What do you envision for your life with a bipolar diagnosis? Please feel free to share details if you'd like to explain your choice more.
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#2
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It's a dream I have, I guess, to be able to be med free by the time I want to have kids. I think I'd get more depressed if I envisioned it any other way.
__________________
Bipolar 2 (in remission), anorexia (in remission), and trichotillomania, also have conversion disorder that seems to be rearing its ugly head again. 100mg Lamictal |
![]() anneo59
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![]() anneo59, wotchermuggle
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#3
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I feel it is possible to go med free and Therapy free for myself. Why?
Typically everyone is in a crisis when they are started on Psyc meds . The object is get you stable so that you can start working on coping skill and learning how to manage your life ect.. I think there are many people that do need Medications for life , Its not that don't practice all self care and whatnot . It just is what it is. However anyone with Bipolar has to set up there own "game plan" in dealing with it all.
__________________
Helping others gets me out of my own head ~ |
![]() anneo59, BipolaRNurse, manymiles
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#4
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I'm only just starting on meds... and I made it clear to my GP that I don't want to be on them for forever. That terrifies me.
Also, I've done quite well for the last 10 years and have a lot of good coping strategies. I'm just currently having a hard time adjusting to my new life situation, and there's not too much I can do about that. So will likely keep on meds until I am fully adjusted and resigned to my environment. (also, I know that next year's group of students is going to make it a really tough year, so it's best to get myself sorted out so that I can handle it... or I'd likely have a breakdown) |
![]() anneo59
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#5
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Just to feel normal. If i have to take a pill or pills everyday, so be it. I do that for my blood pressure
Sent from my C5170 using Tapatalk 2 |
![]() anneo59, BipolaRNurse
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#6
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Doing it on my own for now. I am willing to consider therapy (if I get over the fact it's bit expensive), but not for life.
will see where life takes me.
__________________
Glory to heroes!
HATEFREE CULTURE |
![]() anneo59
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#7
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Well, I've never heard any PDOC say nor have I read anything about bipolar disorder going away by itself. My PDOC in '91 told me that some mood disorders burn themselves out but I have not experienced that.
Listened to NPR (Science Friday) yesterday and discussion was DSM-V, "Bad Diagnosis for New Psychiatry "Bible"" (w/Guests: Director of NIH, President of American Psychiatric Association and a Psychotherapist). Discussed why and why not DSM-V should be used as guidelines for Mental Disorders plus other topics including links between BP and Schizophrenia, the positive track record of med therapy for mood disorders, how Psychiatry needs to be furthered and the problem of DSM-V being based on symptoms and not the causes. It was a really interesting program. (Audio is in link I posted below.) http://forums.psychcentral.com/curre...bible-npr.html
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Forget the night...come live with us in forests of azure - Jim Morrison Last edited by cool09; Jun 01, 2013 at 05:49 PM. Reason: add |
![]() anneo59
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#8
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I have never heard that BiPolar could be managed without meds.
I have talked to my Dr at length about this actually and last year early we did try to take me off them but that did not go over so well and the results are not good. I am back on all the meds I was on plus an additional med for insomnia. I can see taking them for life and I am ok with that if they make the quality of my life better and able to cope with all that come with this.
__________________
"Death is easy, peaceful: Life is harder" "The Day You Turned On Me Is The Day I Died, And I've Forgotten What It's Like, And How It Feels To Be Alive" (Daughtry-Gone) "And you always want what you're running from. It's always been that way." Bittersweet Lyrics by Ellie Goulding "The reason I hold on, cause I need this hole gone." (Stay by Rihanna) "The opposite of love's indifference." (Stubborn Love, The Lumineers) |
![]() anneo59, BipolaRNurse
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#9
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Knowing myself personally I probably will have to be on something indefinitely. And I'm ok with that for myself. Knowing my past, unmedicated, and knowing that I've gotten steadily worse, I'm more scared of a life without it if I'm being honest.
But I'm also willing to say that I may change my opinion. I mean... I do that a lot. It's how I do. ![]()
__________________
.age: 34 female .bipolar I .psychosis .panic/anxiety disorder Seroquel XR 100mg Labetalol for high blood pressure
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![]() anneo59
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#10
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not quite sure bout this one yet
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![]() wotchermuggle
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#11
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Quote:
Of course... I'm not diagnosed with anything yet! |
![]() anneo59
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#12
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I've quit my meds some time ago, looking into starting T to help adjust to some changes atm...
As for the future? I'm planning on doing more of "other" which includes self-management instead of being doped up or putting my head in the sand. I want to start yoga as part of improving my "other".... |
![]() anneo59
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![]() anneo59, venusss
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#13
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I'm resigned to the need to take medications for the rest of my life. Looking back over the years, I can now see how the illness grew and grew until I could no longer ignore it; and as bad as it is WITH meds, I don't even want to think about what life would be like without them. {{{{shudder}}}}
As for therapy, well, I hope one day to be stable enough that I don't have to go to the psychiatrist or therapist as often as I do now. Someday it would be nice to be able to go in only once or twice a year, even 3-4 times a year, but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards at this point.......it's been over 15 months and I still don't have a firm diagnosis yet (although if there were a Bipolar 1.5, that would probably be it. LOL). Sometimes I feel like I'm being a time vacuum; other times I catch crap because I don't call my pdoc until I'm in a full-blown crisis. But either way, bipolar disorder is a permanent part of my life and so are the treatments I need to keep it at bay. It took me a long time to accept that fact, but it is what it is. I'm also older and have been taking meds for diabetes and blood pressure for years; BP is merely another chronic condition that has to be managed.
__________________
DX: Bipolar 1 Anxiety Tardive dyskinesia Mild cognitive impairment RX: Celexa 20 mg Gabapentin 1200 mg Geodon 40 mg AM, 60 mg PM Klonopin 0.5 mg PRN Lamictal 500 mg Levothyroxine 125 mcg (rx'd for depression) Trazodone 150 mg Zyprexa 7.5 mg Please come visit me @ http://bpnurse.com |
![]() anneo59
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#14
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I think people who are diagnosed Bipolar truly have a chemical imbalance in their brain... one that OFTEN times requires medication to remain stable. I know that I will be on medication for the rest of my life and I'm fine with that. People have to take medication everyday for a number of physical ailments: high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid disorder, chrones disease etc etc.They take these medications everyday to prevent symptoms and to help keep them healthy. Taking bipolar medication is no different. We have something wrong within our brains so we have to take medication to stay stable. There is no shame in that! And I don't know why people are so afraid or worried about having to take medication forever. Like I said, you would obviously do so for the other problems I listed, why is Bipolar Disorder any different? Why would you ever want to stop taking something that makes you feel better and keeps you sane?
Also I want to say that although I voted for medication & therapy for life... I'd like to change that to medication for life only. I think WITH medication and time and plenty of therapy, you can learn live a stable, normal, happy life without the need to see a therapist ongoing. |
![]() anneo59
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#15
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Hey guys,
I think I will be popping pills for life. My default setting seems to be hypo manic and depressed at the same time, so drugs aren't too bad comparatively. |
![]() anneo59
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![]() anneo59
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#16
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Quote:
The "chemical imbalance" myth it's not that simple. Quote:
__________________
Glory to heroes!
HATEFREE CULTURE |
![]() anneo59
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#17
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Gravity is also a theory technically. :P
My apologies I'm just sassy today. I'm not trying to start anything. lol That could be just a case of semantics too. It may not be chemical (I know just about nothing about anything medical so anything I say to that end would sound terribly ignorant) but it's still a chronic legitimate illness. I know for myself, sometimes my "coping method" has just been to run to the bathroom or take a long drive so people don't see me break. But the break still happens regardless. For me there are other things going on too than just a mood disorder. Positive thinking won't get the voices in my head to stop yelling at me. I couldn't possibly think positively enough to make sure I sleep through the night. Being so hypo that I shake, that my blood pressure is higher... I wish I could control those things without medication. And for 15 years I tried... just about destroyed my life in the process... but damn I tried. "Chemical imbalance" is just a nice, neat little way of saying "we have no idea"... but that doesn't make it any less real. Gravity or evolution are both scientific theories. It's all just semantics.
__________________
.age: 34 female .bipolar I .psychosis .panic/anxiety disorder Seroquel XR 100mg Labetalol for high blood pressure
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#18
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I posted in an other thread about seeing predator drones. And as a Czech I would never ever recommend "positive thinking". That is a cruel simplification of life philosophy. I derive my from Buddhism and other eastern philosophies. which are NOT "positive thinking" (which is imho a western atrocity and probably never existed in any other culture).
sorry for being "sassy" today too.
__________________
Glory to heroes!
HATEFREE CULTURE |
![]() anneo59
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#19
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I expect to be on meds forever, but I'm okay with it. I tried to go off meds during a "good period" of my life and I was a suicidal mess in weeks without any trigger. My pdoc (who allowed me to do it) said "I told you so." But, he was an a-hole.
![]() Therapy is more up in the air. I've been in for 10 yrs, but t hasn't been helping lately. I think I will be in therapy episodically, at least. EJ |
#20
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I have no issue with being on meds forever. The meds I take have changed and probably will change. I don't have an issue with the idea of being in therapy forever either. Both meds and therapy have been positive for me.
Okay, so the medication did make me gain weight and I'm currently a women's US Size 20, but part of that is my fault for eating like crap. I know the meds increase my appetite/give me cravings and so I give in. And I don't exercise. But my current doc is trying to get me on something weight neutral to deal with that. My life before getting a diagnosis and before getting treatment wasn't great. My personality, frankly, was off putting to a lot of people, and I hurt a lot of people or treated them badly because I had no filter. No filter and a lot of uncontrolable anger that came from no where. My life isn't perfect and in some ways it's way better than it was just 3 years ago and in some ways it's worse than it was 3 years ago (major life change happened around that time, I was actually diagnosed with Bipolar disorder about 14 years ago). |
![]() anneo59
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#21
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Quote:
(Sorry to get off-topic.) What about all of the correlations of genetic mutations within BP and schizophrenia? I don't believe a holistic approach can help lots of people with these disorders. I've lived healthy my whole life and have gotten absolutely no where.
__________________
Forget the night...come live with us in forests of azure - Jim Morrison Last edited by cool09; Jun 02, 2013 at 05:56 PM. Reason: add |
![]() anneo59
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#22
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Oh I wasn't saying that it wasn't at all. Just in the strict literal terms of how scientific research defines the word "theory", gravity is "technically" a theory. It's really a flimsier definition than the majority of people are led to believe. I also think that under the strict sense of the term, the fact the earth revolves around the sun is also a theory. Again... technically. They are reality, clearly. I think I had heard that the reason it's still a "theory" (gravity) is because they can't pin down what actually causes it. And that's just in the very strict scientific sense. I was only remarking on the irony of the semantics at play.
But... off topic. ![]()
__________________
.age: 34 female .bipolar I .psychosis .panic/anxiety disorder Seroquel XR 100mg Labetalol for high blood pressure
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![]() anneo59
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#23
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Quote:
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![]() BipolaRNurse
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#24
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#25
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