[spincera]

Hello everyone,
I am currently in the hospital for a depression episode and am now feeling really revved up, hyper, thinking lots, bad talking faster.It is a huge change from last night. Also I didn't sleep very well just like the night before. So I'm trying to keep my composure so I don't freak out on the staff.I'm also agitated. I was like this only like five days ago. I have beef going through highs and lows as well as some mild visual distortions and delusions. The doctor seems to only want to increase my lamictal back up to 200 mg and that's it. In my opinion I need an anti psychotic as well eventough I have tried nearly every one available for bipolar. This is the first time for mild psychotic symptoms. I am 42 and was diagnosed like 6 years ago.
I'm trying to figure out what to do to calm me down and what I should do to advocate for myself. Thanks

[Tucson]

Does the doctor believe you are in a hypomanic episode? I think this is a good place to start your conversation with your pdoc. Still, the episode has to last several days to be relevant.

[LastQuestion]

I have found that good self care goes along way to promoting stability. Using Dark Therapy mellows hypomania for me while reducing the length of an episode. Light Therapy can help with my seasonal depression, but can cause an initial episode of hypomania for the first few days. If I use Melatonin before bed when I begin to notice I may be going hypo the episode tends to be even shorter, my recovery from it with nearly no crash. My diet plays a large role in this as well. There is a lot of theory and hypothesis involved which supports this approach to managing symptoms. I find that L-Theanine helps with sleep especially in concert with time release melatonin. It doesn't knock me out, or really make me all that sleepy, but, most nights, slows my mind just enough that I can gradually calm down more and more.

There are many ways to cope without an anti-psychotic. I wish clinicians spent more time using them. I encourage you to consider implementing them on your own where you can and requesting treatments when necessary. Dark therapy is as simple as going to bed at around 7pm in complete darkness and staying there in complete darkness until morning. There might be existing tools available at the hospItal you are in, such as a no-blue nightlight (amber or red color light) for using the bathroom or blue-blocking glasses. You would have to request the melatonin, and they might not have the l-theanine on hand.

Overall I have become more and more stable with less medication. Sleep, diet, exercise, phototherapy, and over the counter supplements have been disturbingly effective at reducing my symptoms of bipolar.

Originally Posted by spincera

Hello everyone,
I am currently in the hospital for a depression episode and am now feeling really revved up, hyper, thinking lots, bad talking faster.It is a huge change from last night. Also I didn't sleep very well just like the night before. So I'm trying to keep my composure so I don't freak out on the staff.I'm also agitated. I was like this only like five days ago. I have beef going through highs and lows as well as some mild visual distortions and delusions. The doctor seems to only want to increase my lamictal back up to 200 mg and that's it. In my opinion I need an anti psychotic as well eventough I have tried nearly every one available for bipolar. This is the first time for mild psychotic symptoms. I am 42 and was diagnosed like 6 years ago.
I'm trying to figure out what to do to calm me down and what I should do to advocate for myself. Thanks

I wouldn't be hiding this from the doctors. They need to know. Lamictal will help control the cycling and the antipsychotic will control the racing thoughts.

Originally Posted by spincera

Hello everyone,
I am currently in the hospital for a depression episode and am now feeling really revved up, hyper, thinking lots, bad talking faster.It is a huge change from last night. Also I didn't sleep very well just like the night before. So I'm trying to keep my composure so I don't freak out on the staff.I'm also agitated. I was like this only like five days ago. I have beef going through highs and lows as well as some mild visual distortions and delusions. The doctor seems to only want to increase my lamictal back up to 200 mg and that's it. In my opinion I need an anti psychotic as well eventough I have tried nearly every one available for bipolar. This is the first time for mild psychotic symptoms. I am 42 and was diagnosed like 6 years ago.
I'm trying to figure out what to do to calm me down and what I should do to advocate for myself. Thanks

I wouldn't be hiding this from the doctors. They need to know. Lamictal will help control the cycling and the antipsychotic will control the manic thoughts.

[spincera]

Thanks for the responses. I told the doctor. He is increasing my lamictal back up to 200 mg and then slowly adding abilify which is what I was on before all of these mood swings started happening. They took me off of ability due to acathesia. Apparently it's ok to go back on a med that gives you that. It actually makes me mad cuz I went on to try different med after different med and experienced all sorts of side effects and mood swings. I had even tried five ect treatments and had to drop out of school to get hit with a huge education bill.not to mention numerous other headaches. Ugh!

[crazycatlady_83]

I take Geodon along with Lamictal, and have for the last 4 years. This combo has worked fairly well through the years. I haven't been clinically depressed in a long time, and my last hospitalization 2 years ago was from taking Nuvigil too long and making me manic. I did just go through a pretty bad manic phase for me (I'm rapid cycling so this was longer than I'm used to), but I didn't really have my pdoc available to help me through it and no med changes.

I agree that you should definitely let your pdoc know what is going on. I found it's very beneficial to keep him in the loop on things, and I also keep in touch with a therapist.

[Mimielam]

Ah..well, from my experience..when I felt this way the last time, after a while, after many things and before everything got out of hands I picked up the phone and call my PDOC and said " this is how I'm feeling, I'm worried, This is how I am by giving exemples..She asked me more questions gave me instructions about the medication I was taking and the one she had already given to me in the past..the next day I was in her office..then weekly and now finally the combo seems ok..It helped me to write stuff and also to have my friend help me describe my behaviour. Good luck.

[spincera]

Thanks everyone for your experiences.

[mven45]

Originally Posted by spincera

Thanks everyone for your experiences.

I recently was diagnosed type 2 and have been on a combination of seroquel and prozac. I find that diet and exercise are a huge part of it and I seem to do better when I regulate my sleep cycle to a consistent schedule.
When I go hypo manic, I tend to drink; highly discouraged.
I talk to my therapist regularly (weekly) and he helps to offer suggestions on what I can do. I've also found that this condition, in general is much more widespread than I had previously imagined. You would be amazed at how many people you will meet who know exactly what youre talking about.

[A Red Panda]

When I'm hypomanic, I have "rules" set up for myself. Such as not being allowed to purchase anything expensive or hobby related - if I still want it like 6 months later then ok I can do that.

I follow that rule ALL the time, so that when I'm hypomanic I'm more likely to not say "screw it" and throw out the rule. haha. I have other rules like that for myself.

I also find it important to FORCE my sorry butt to stay in bed. If I don't sleep a wink then oh well, I am simply not allowed to get out of bed more than an hour early. (which, btw, is absolutely torture sometimes!)