[Rebel Maven]

Here is how this works for me. It is a perfect example of “which came first – the chicken or the egg”.

I was originally put on an extremely high dose combination of different antidepressants and antianxiety medications for severe migraines. That is how it all started.

The antidepressants made me manic so they took me off them and I became depressed. So they put me back on them and I become manic again. Then they took me off them and I became depressed again. Then they put me back on them and I became manic again. Repeat, repeat, repeat for many years.

The cycle ranges from so majorly depressed when off antidepressants that I am unable to function. For example the psychomotor retardation is so severe that I cannot feed or dress myself, walk, sit up, read, understand conversation or talk. Last time I was in bed for nine months and was mostly suicidal during that time.

The mania is so bad when on antidepressants that I become delusional and engage in hideous reckless behavior including compulsive spending, hypersexuality, and physically dangerous activities. I get severe neurological symptoms such as Peripheral Neuropathy, Burning Mouth Syndrome, Focal Hand Dystonia, and tremors to name a few.

Each time they take me on or off the medications the degree of severity of the symptoms, either depression or mania, has worsened exponentially over the years. I cannot achieve any stability. I don’t expect perfection but waves in emotion would be much more acceptable than these radical spikes.

Currently I am on medication and going from hypomanic to full blown mania rapidly. I called the doctor and she said to quit my medications all at once.

NO!

I am going to try to taper down the drug most likely to be causing the mania that I am on gradually and see if I can achieve an acceptable emotional level. It won’t be perfect but I am hoping this reduction will relieve some of the intense psychological and physical symptoms of mania while not crashing me back in to major depression.

Unless anyone has a better suggestion?

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Rebel Maven

[BipolaRNurse]

Stopping all meds cold turkey without close medical supervision is dangerous and foolish, although bipolars do it all the time because we think we don't need them anymore. (And sometimes we're right.) I can't imagine why your doctor suggested that.

I don't know how many or what kind of meds you're taking, but going off them outside of a hospital where you can receive intensive monitoring? NOT a good idea. I think you need a second opinion immediately......your own pdoc seems not to have your best interests at heart.

Was there are specific symptom that she was alarmed by? I was ordered to stop all medication a couple times because of severe side effects - body going numb and tingley, heart problems, fainting or severe dizzyness. I didnt have many problems with coming off them too fast in most occasions. But coming off all meds while you are still so manic can be bad. Are you or have you ever been on a mood stabilizer or antipsychotic? They may stop the antidepressants from sending you too high.

I would definitely get a second opinion if this has been your cycle for years with the same team. Obviously not working, you can have periods of stability with the right meds and coping mechanisms.

[Rebel Maven]

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

Stopping all meds cold turkey without close medical supervision is dangerous and foolish, although bipolars do it all the time because we think we don't need them anymore. (And sometimes we're right.) I can't imagine why your doctor suggested that.

I don't know how many or what kind of meds you're taking, but going off them outside of a hospital where you can receive intensive monitoring? NOT a good idea. I think you need a second opinion immediately......your own pdoc seems not to have your best interests at heart.

All the doctors I have seen are clueless. I have to stop the hypomania from becoming a full blown manic episode and also have to get the physical neurological symptoms under control.

I am not saying I am stopping them completely but just tapering one of them for a while to adjust the dose to a therapeutic level. That is how bipolar works. You don't just discontinue - you constantly have to tweak the meds. She has me on the wrong meds for bipolar anyway. Unfortunately last time I crashed I was not coherent enough for nine months to see what she had done to me.

I am going to do a slow taper with a lot of holds to just decrease the dosage of the one of my meds that is causing the mania to increase and the intensity of the physical neurological symptoms. Then I will do a long hold after the first three cuts and see what happens.

This doctor would have flipped me in to Sudden Serotonin Discontinuation and major depression if I had listened to her.

[BipolaRNurse]

I think you need a different pdoc. I'm glad you're doing the smart thing and tapering off slowly, which is something so basic that it doesn't take a medical degree to figure out. It just blows me away that a doctor would advise you to go off psych meds cold turkey.....whatever happened to "First, do no harm"?

[Rebel Maven]

Originally Posted by supanova

was there are specific symptom that she was alarmed by? I was ordered to stop all medication a couple times because of severe side effects - body going numb and tingley, heart problems, fainting or severe dizzyness.

i told her that i was feeling hypomanic and it seemed to be increasing. I was expecting a med cut not a total stoppage. It is was not like it was life threatening.

i didnt have many problems with coming off them too fast in most occasions. But coming off all meds while you are still so manic can be bad. Are you or have you ever been on a mood stabilizer or antipsychotic? They may stop the antidepressants from sending you too high.

i have been on mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, atypical-antipsychotics, seizure drugs, etc. I have never had success with them as i mostly have paradoxical reactions to them. Due to my hypersensitivity i will have to taper down the dose of prozac very slowly.

i would definitely get a second opinion if this has been your cycle for years with the same team. Obviously not working, you can have periods of stability with the right meds and coping mechanisms.

i will take it in my own hands a this point as i have no other options. All the doctors i have seen over the years have given up on me because i am so hypersensitive and have so many bad drug reactions.

hopefully a reduction on the dose of the drug that is causing the hypomania will prevent a full blown mania attack and not make me crash back in to major depression. They never should have started me on an antidepressant to treat bipolar. The first line drug would have been a mood stabilizer but it is too late now. I can't and won't add another drug on top of the current drugs i am on as i am already suffering from drug interactions between them. it will take years to taper off of them until i could start over and my brain is too damaged to be off meds completely.

Rebel Maven

What is a paradoxical reaction?

If you are so hypersensitive to meds have you tried hebals? I swear tension tamer tea works better than my 1mg ativan tablets (not quite as good as the 2.5mg tablets though). Valerian, Chamomile, kava etc? What about less conventional medication?

[gayleggg]

My pdoc took my off all my meds at once, expect to the Klonopin after I started having delusions after starting a blood thinner. I didn't have any problems. He didn't put me back on any of the same ones, since I'm still on the blood thinner because he didn't know which once caused the problem.

[Rebel Maven]

Originally Posted by Supanova

What is a paradoxical reaction?

If you are so hypersensitive to meds have you tried hebals? I swear tension tamer tea works better than my 1mg ativan tablets (not quite as good as the 2.5mg tablets though). Valerian, Chamomile, kava etc? What about less conventional medication?

Google "paradoxical reaction".

I am also hypersensitized to anything ingested so herbals are not an option for me. I utilize other unconventional therapies as long as they do not cause a reaction which is common for me so I have to be careful.

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

I think you need a different pdoc. I'm glad you're doing the smart thing and tapering off slowly, which is something so basic that it doesn't take a medical degree to figure out. It just blows me away that a doctor would advise you to go off psych meds cold turkey.....whatever happened to "First, do no harm"?

I know. Her recommendation was crazy.