Are you like me ?

Does anyone here have a diagnosis of Bipolar2 with a very slow cycle and a large element of Seasonal effective disorder.

If you do what meds are you on and how does this affect your life ?

Thanks for chatting !

Hunkychunky2

im bipolar 2, but a rapid cycler...interesting thing is that I seemed to cycle with the seasons......

Topamax seems to work great for me......ive been through about everything..im really sensitive to meds...get tartive dyskinesia with many of the meds so cant take them....been on Topamax for years and it is working well.

I have a diagnosis of bipolar 2 with a definite SAD element. I've been on antidepressants and a mood stabilizer which has been great in preventing suicidal feelings in Jan/Feb. What about you?

I'm BP 1 but there is also a strong seasonal component to my mood shifts. I can almost set my calendar by them---depressed in late fall and late winter, mixed in early spring, manic in early summer, mildly depressed or mixed in late summer, manic in early fall. All with normal periods in between. My pdoc's been keeping me on two APs for the past six months because I had a nasty mixed episode during the spring, and then summer arrived which is when I tend to go totally ape ****. Didn't happen this year though.....in fact, in June I went in the opposite direction and experienced suicidal ideation. Then things were decent for a couple of months, and now I'm having my usual late-summer doldrums. Meh. It'll get better soon.....won't be long till my happy early fall time arrives.

BipolaRNurse wow, how good you know yourself! Have you been charting extensively to come to the conclusions on your type of episodes throughout the year?

I get aggravated depression November- February-ish. it's so bad that SAD was added to my dx. Pdoc always doubled my appointments those months.

What is my effect on medication. I accidentally overdosed at 17 and before that I lived on a pack of partially digested diet pills a day . Naturally after the overdose my body just refuses to ingest pills. So taking medication is a ten minute fight with myself trying to keep down the pills. It doesn't help that my viibryd (an antipsychotic with an antidepressant) makes me nauseous if I'm not constantly eating/drinking which is a healthy side effect for me.

Semi-sane was very difficult and problem some to get use to. Especially the longer lighter depression because now it comes with suicidal ideation. It has literally changed our whole lifestyle for better or worse depending on what aspect of life you are talking about. While becoming more stable my paranoia and disassociating have become worse because my episodes have become longer. My ability to keep a stable living situation has Improved dramatically. My parenting ability has gone to **** as well as my coping skills. So it's a give and take.

Yes, I do keep a mood chart, which makes it really easy to see where I've been during each season. Plus, my pdoc knows me very well and adjusts my medications whenever I start heading in one direction or the other. He says I'm one of the most light-sensitive bipolar patients he's ever treated. But I think being self-aware helps keep me out of big trouble; I haven't had a full-blown mania or depression since last fall, and I'm a rapid cycler.