[GlenMartin]

I was hypomanic for months before I flip-flopped down into the abyss where hence I linger. There was no way I could have known that the wonder of my polar high was going to result in such an unbearable decline in my mental well being.
Being new to this disease, the last three weeks I've struggled against hope to endure the overwhelming lows. I feel like the world would be better off without my further involvement, due to the constant bane I sleep with and then awaken with, when I sleep at all. I feel like I'm losing the battle and have no interest in prolonging this agony. It's simply not fair to my wife and dog.
As with most of you, everyone else is gone from my life.
Will this manic depression ever swing back to the hyper phase, or am I doomed to struggle with this fiery depression until the end of time?
62 year old male . . . 40 mg. latuda, period.

[wildflowerchild25]

By its very nature bipolar is a cyclical condition. Meaning it is unlikely for you to be doomed to depression for the rest of your life. If you have long cycles it can seem interminable. I have short episodes, typically two weeks max, and even i start to think it will never end. I have found it's nearly impossible to see the other side while in an episode. I was just hypomanic on Friday and I though I was the most amazing person that could ever lie and that I would always be super high and mighty...today I want to crawl in a hole. I felt like everyone hated me at work and that they were all talking about it. And I've already forgotten what I felt on Friday, as if I'll never feel it again (which is true if I stay on meds).

I don't know if you have tried anything other than latuda but a mood stabilizer might help bring you up and keep you stable.

[GlenMartin]

As low as I have been for several weeks, it seems all but impossible to even consider seeking help, but I am sane enough to realize that an answer might loom within that realm. Just walking out to get in the truck seems overwhelming. In my case, the latudas being prescribed coincided with a 2-3 week hypomanic episode. I thought I was on the one drug that provided a miracle reaction. Now that I've nose-dived, I'm realizing that there is no magic bullet, and that, my friends, is depressing in itself. I thought I was a bit strange before, but nothing could have prepared me for my new reality.

Work with your dr to get on a mood stabilizer too, the goal is some kind of stability between the highs and lows...they can happen. I was hypomanic back in the fall for several weeks, my dr managed to brjng it to a stop but I still fell into depression for several weeks. I've finally been stable since mid Jan. I went through several med changes to get to what is working now.

[Mickey4333]

It seems to be very common for (hypo)mania to end in depression but not really so much for depression to end in (hypo)mania. I think everyone is different and for me each episode is different. One time (about 20yo) I went about 10 years without symptoms. Within the last year, I had hypomania for several months (when somebody brought it to my attention), then mixed episodes for several months, and am now in mild depression. I agree, however, with previous responses that you probably could use a mood stabilizer and/or increase the Latuda.