[~Christina]

I am curious.....

If you are minding your own business and trotting right along and X happens or nothing happens to set it off , and you find your self flying face first into a Manic episode.

What do you do ? Call your Pdoc? what if its the weekend? or your regular Pdoc is on vacation ?

Am I the only one that has a plan for such times ? I have 2 medications I can take to stop or at least slow down my ugly hateful self destructive mania ..

Isn't it normal to have a "plan" that you and your doctor agree upon that can help you NOW instead of later?

[Victoria'smom]

I am or my family is suppose to call T or pdoc when the following happens:

• being unable to recognize or correctly identify family members and friends immediately
• Agitation 4 days
• neglecting personal hygiene (for how many days?) 4 days
• not cooking or doing any housework (for how many days?) 4 days
• not understanding what people are saying 4 days
• thinking I am someone I am not 2 days
• thinking I have the ability to do something I don’t 2 days
• displaying abusive, destructive, or violent behavior, toward self, others, or property 4 days / 2 self destructive acts.
• abusing alcohol and/or drugs ANY excluding pot
• not getting out of bed (for how long?) 4 day
• refusing to eat or drink anything 2 days

Because of last time T wants me to have an AP so I can calm down enough to call. My husband out right refused to call anyone or tell his T for fear that I'd see him as an enemy and file for divorces. If it is a weekend we knock my *** out until Monday.

[vjdragonfly]

Christina, I have a plan for nothing. I just try to keep it together the best I can. As long as I am not effecting anyone else....

Miguel'smom, I qualify for over half of those scenarios almost all of the time

[Victoria'smom]

If I know I'm suppose to call the next day and still "choose" not to the basics then there's a problem. It has to be full days to count.

[Nessa213]

My only "plan" (if you can call it that) is to keep the credit cards out of my purse. I don't really realize I'm going through it when it's happening. Last time (around January/February) it wasn't until one of my friends said "Hey... you sure go shopping an awful lot" until I realized what was happening. I had been bailing out of work to go shopping and spending hundreds of dollars that we didn't really have at the time. This was actually before I even started seeing a pdoc at all.

Honestly, other than ya know... hard core binge drinking... the spending is the only thing I do that has serious long term consequences.

Other than the nice and happy hypomanias though I haven't gone through anything seriously detrimental since about February. On the mania side I mean.

[roads]

If I go hypomanic, I up my mood stabilizer. If my anger becomes an issue ... If I stop sleeping ... If I become talkative at work--I make an appointment with my pdoc ASAP. He sees me immediately because I go off the deep end quickly once I start going.

[Moose72]

No plan. The hospital staff last Fall asked why I wasn't there when I described my manic episode a few months prior. Ah well. Isn't the nature of the beast: you don't know or don't care that you're in a manic episode?

[~Christina]

Oh I should have added .. I am thinking of the ugly angry self destructive type Mania.

When I get all Hypo and I'm upbeat and can get enormous amounts of things done. My Hypos do not automatically tumble into a mess, Sometimes my hypo just fades away.

The fun fantastic mania , of course who would want to stop that! But even then if you are aware in the begining and had a way to bring it down so your not left with the aftermath... would you maybe try it?

I asked my Pdoc way back when what can I do right then if I am unable to get his help. That is when we came up with a plan... Just wasn't sure if anyone else has a plan for this type of situation?

[~Christina]

Originally Posted by Moose72

No plan. The hospital staff last Fall asked why I wasn't there when I described my manic episode a few months prior. Ah well. Isn't the nature of the beast: you don't know or don't care that you're in a manic episode?

I think alot of people can feel an episode coming or maybe a family member or friend can see trouble maybe on its way.

[ultramar]

I don't have a formal plan in place, but after the episode before my last manic episode, my therapist and I talked about him helping me be aware of it and as soon as possible so it wouldn't get to the point it did then. He knows my baseline very well, as well as how I am when manic, so he's a very good person to help with this, plus I see him once a week and if things were to get bad in this way I could contact him.

I haven't had any episodes since, but he helped me with a kind of hypomanic reaction to prednisone and a reaction to trying to lower my Seroquel when I was too messed up to realize what was going on.

My pdoc has told me I can increase the Seroquel prn; it's helpful knowing it's there, if you take enough, it's pretty much a horse tranquilizer.

I know I could contact my pdoc, but his availability is pretty poor and I prefer my therapist, I only would if absolutely necessary. During my last manic episode, though, my pdoc did have me call him every day until we found a dose of Seroquel that finally started to help and scheduled a couple of appointments 2 weeks apart; it still took a while after the daily contact to completely get back to baseline, but I don't like bothering him too much.

Luckily my episodes are few and far between so it's not something to often be on the look-out for, but it's so important to catch it early, makes all the difference in the world.

I'm glad you brought this up. I know that when I'm in that state I have very very poor self-awareness, my thinking is all over the place, etc. It really is a good idea to have a plan in place.

[bipolarOne79]

Never had really thought about a plan. Reading this thread makes me think I should come up with one. I see my t doc every week so maybe she can help me come up with a plan. I see my p doc about every 3-4 weeks and she always tells me to call her when I need to and she is good about returning my calls, she even calls me back the same day so she is kinda my backup at the moment.

[BipolaRNurse]

I didn't really have a plan until this last pdoc appointment, on Friday. I'm really in a good healthy place now, but it did take a boost of my AP to kick that mixed episode I had in May. Eventually my pdoc wants to cut it back down to the baby dose I was on before, but said he'd do it only if I'm still stable in 3-6 months, and in any case he wants to leave some room to increase the dose if/when I need it.

I kinda got in a bit of trouble with him too, because I basically have to be 2 steps away from being admitted to the psych unit before I'll call about a manic episode. He made me SWEAR to call if I feel myself getting even slightly over-amped, so he can medicate the mania before it gets out of control. He knows I'm one of those people who go high in the spring and summer months, and I've already had a ******-kitty of a mixed episode this year so he's afraid I might have another.

I do wish I had a PRN for mania like I did last summer when I was on Zyprexa, but understand why he wants me to call before I get really wound up. I'm on a scheduled AP anyway, but it's also because I'm sort of untrustworthy in this department. (I love my hypomania---it's just that it tends to turn on me and become full-blown mania if I let it go.) He's right, I have little or no insight once it gets out of control, and he wants to be on top of it because I've proven time after time that I'm not very good at reporting in when I really should.

[intergalactictraveler]

Originally Posted by ~Christina

I am curious.....

If you are minding your own business and trotting right along and X happens or nothing happens to set it off , and you find your self flying face first into a Manic episode.

What do you do ? Call your Pdoc? what if its the weekend? or your regular Pdoc is on vacation ?

Am I the only one that has a plan for such times ? I have 2 medications I can take to stop or at least slow down my ugly hateful self destructive mania ..

Isn't it normal to have a "plan" that you and your doctor agree upon that can help you NOW instead of later?

You know my story, Christina, so I'm left to my own devices when the accelerator in my brain gets stuck. I use the amino acid taurine which has properties similar to anitconvulsants. The recommended dosing when it's used as a supplement is 1 to 3 grams a day but to stop the mania and the migraine that accompanies it, 5 to 15 grams in a day. But it works. My pdoc knows about its anti-manic properties and she knows I do my research on everything.

[faerie_moon_x]

I have no plan. I'm a roll with the punches kind of person, I guess. Flying around by the seat of my pants. I am this way because whenever I make it a plan it just never works out.

My big thing is that I just keep track of myself as best I can. I've never been hopsitalized or anything. Not ever. I'm sure I needed it a few times. But, you know... otherwise I just hang on for dear life. I think that the main character in "The Silver Linings Playbook" said it really well when he said he was just "white kncuckling it." That's pretty much me.