what do other people think about being bipolar?

You nailed it! I totally didn't add the social anxiety in there. All of my friends live online. LOL.

So true! *hugs!*

I have a hard time making true friends because I tend to be cold. I can make acquaintances easily, but I don't let anyone in past that. Plus my mood changes daily and constantly. So sometimes I feel like talking to people and other days I want to just destroy the world.

To this and the previous post, yes...so much yes! I have never had someone explain it any better because that is exactly how I feel! When I am manic, either up or down, my brain just sounds like a crowded room with a ton of people talking all at once because of all of the thoughts going on at once

Does anyone have this happen more frequently at night?

I've dated two girls with bipolar in the past. Both had manic episodes while I was seeing them. And one I seen her in depression too. The manic is definitely easier to cope with imho. I would simply excuse her behavior to friends by telling them she simply had too much to drink and that would end of that discussion. But one actually got psychotic too and there was no explaining that. My personal experience with NONs regarding bipolar is they are very understanding and acceptable towards bipolar people. More so then people with personality disorders. I would not worry to much about what people think afterwards. I can totally relate to how embarrassed you may feel afterwards! While I do not have manic episodes, I'm a high functioning borderline, if I drink it does give the appearance some thing is off on me and I suddenly share way too much information or want to be everyone's friend or I may even say stupid stuff and occasionally get in fights. All of which I later regret and dwell over! But doesn't everyone really at one time or another? The difference between us however is I really don't care how many long term friends I have or what people think. It just seems to bother me most the next morning. Then I get over it. Seriously, don't worry about it! From my experiences bipolar people have a lot more friends then most people even NONs. Your just embarrassed and that feeling will pass.

Yes. At night is usually when my mind races the most. It used to cause insomnia and I had to take sleeping pills for the longest time. I've been having this issue lately and have been thinking about getting some more to help me sleep on rough nights. I think it's just being in bed in the dark with nothing around you but your thoughts.

That's what I always thought it was, but then again I have learned I can't always trust what I think lol. I have horrible insomnia, like I stay up for days until I crash for a day and just keep doing it. I have yet to find an over the counter sleeping aid that keeps me asleep for more than a few hours. And usually I wind up having terrible nightmares or sleep walk if I try and force myself to sleep.

I hope you're able to get some help soon hun. Sleep is important for us! or so I've been told

Yea I found old Ambien that I used to take. It instead made me trip balls and then I couldn't wake up the next morning. -__-

omg that's awful! I used to take seroquil and that **** freaked me out. I would have these weird dreams that I knew were dreams but I couldn't wake up. I wound up sleeping 18 hours a day stuck in a hallucination!

wow. That is crazy! Well, at least your hallucinations are nice! And I wish you lived in my neighborhood, you would have fit right in! We have a lot of drunk people that walk around doing all kinds of weird **** lol

ambien is some bad stuff. that was the third sleep med my dr tried me on trileptal and lunesta didn't work, either the ambien didnt' put me to sleep ( I stayed up 8 extra hours reading a book once) or once my husband came home one night from a trip after I went to bed and I didn't know he was there and apparently we had fun and I didn't remember it at all, I thought he was lying to me. Of course he used to do electrical work on the house on it! I had to make him stop using it I was afraid he was going to get electrocuted.

Oh wow that's scary!

I'll be sure to stay away from the Ambien. I've heard so many bad things about it. My pdoc gave me an Rx for Klonopin for anxiety and insomnia. I take half a pill in the morning and 1 pill before bed. It helps me go to sleep I guess because it calms me down, but I can only sleep from about 10 or 11 pm and wake up at 3am and it's very light sleep that's not restful at all. I'm not sure if she'll add a sleep med or prescribe something else for anxiety that will also help with sleep.

anxietygirl, you're still pretty low on lamictal, when you get to therapeutic level that might help to alleviate some of the anxiety so you will sleep better. I've always slept bad I just never had it seen about until I was being seen about all this other stuff.

I do better on antipsychotics, that sleep med experiment was a three month trial of no APs about a year ago, just in time for the holidays...I wanted my saphris back.

My pdoc tried the same thing with me last year, right around the same time---I went off Zyprexa in mid-October, went on Geodon in early February. I didn't sleep worth a damn in all that time, so he started me on a baby dose of the Geodon but I wound up having to double it to 40 and then 80 mg due to manic and mixed episodes, so it serves a two-fold purpose.

Now I'm wondering, do people just stay on antipsychotics forever, or do they eventually come off? My pdoc wants to try reducing my dose in a few months if I remain stable, but we're not talking about taking me off of it completely. I hope someday I can do without it, because these puppies are expensive and I have no health insurance to help bear some of the cost.

The hell of it is, the stuff works, it doesn't stir up my diabetes and I've actually lost about 30 lbs. on it. But all APs carry some risks, so naturally I wonder if I'll have to be on one for the long term, and if anyone here has successfully come off of them AND maintained their stability.

Thanks for the insight emomom. I hope it helps. This is my first experience with BP meds. I was diagnosed with major depression when I was 18 and was on AD's but that was it. I thought being manic was my baseline for years.

I have only told a few people as I am frightened of people's reaction. Also I live in a really small community where people gossip

When I'm hypo I so the same. Like right now. I just had a very old friend whom I've confessed my diagnosis to tell me that should have done better. I'm pissed. I did go off on how he could never understand neither does society and blah, blah, blah. Bit does no good. Waist of my breath. Other than that I've really only told family. I wonder why!?