[CopperStar]

My pdoc said she didn't think I needed a mood stabilizer, even while agreeing that it sounds like I have BP1 and writing down "episodic mood disorder nos" on my paperwork.

Instead she wanted me to take Abilify, which to my knowledge is not a mood stabilizer but rather is used to treat psychosis? I did not want to take Abilify because at the time I was extremely wound up and agitated, and several reviews said that Abilify made their irritation and/or restlessness worse.

So I agreed to try Zyprexa, another atypical anti-psychotic. It works on most of my symptoms. It certainly makes all the psychosis-like stuff go away (naturally, I guess), but I still have depression symptoms. Now the Zyprexa is starting to cause weight gain, and I am frustrated.

I am frustrated because I do not understand my pdoc's thinking. She made it out like I am not 'bad' enough MI-wise to need a mood stabilizer. I don't see it as a matter of severity. I see it in terms of what is appropriate? I'm just confused and getting frustrated.

She specifically mentioned that she didn't think I needed lithium or depakote. Are these like, super heavy duty drugs or something? Are they really heavier than something like Zyprexa? It's hard for me to imagine an anti-psychotic as a 'light' medication, and a mood stabilizer as 'bringing out the big guns'. But is that really the way it is?

[Moogieotter]

Hey,

What's you Zyprexa dose? AAPs are strong not sure how they stack up against other meds. Lithium and Depakote can be strong. Doses vary there as well. I would think a pdoc would be more apt to prescribe something like Lamictal, a mood stabilizer, over some of the options you are seeing.

moogs

[CopperStar]

Originally Posted by Moogieotter

Hey,

What's you Zyprexa dose? AAPs are strong not sure how they stack up against other meds. Lithium and Depakote can be strong. Doses vary there as well. I would think a pdoc would be more apt to prescribe something like Lamictal, a mood stabilizer, over some of the options you are seeing.

moogs

She started me on 5mg of Zyprexa, but outside of helping me sleep a little better the first few days, it wasn't really working and I felt I was getting worse. I tried 10mg and that cleared up all signs of psychosis for me, as well as got rid of my severe agitation. So my pdoc let me have a 10mg prescription officially.

However I have started getting depression symptoms, and the nice 'fresh' feeling I had initially on 10mg has gone away. Instead my depression symptoms are getting worse, my self-care is starting to slip again. I still feel 'okay' compared to what I was like before starting Zyprexa, but I'm afraid that I'm just gearing up to become overweight and depressed.

I plan to talk to her next session in early-mid August about all this, but she has already said no to mood stabilizers, and anti-depressants have made me mixed and psychotic in the past. So I'm just like well, what the hell should I take then???

I'm considering pushing for Abilify, I guess, since it seems to be perkier.

[Moogieotter]

Abilify is not bad at all. How long have you been on 10 mg Zyprexa?

[CopperStar]

Originally Posted by Moogieotter

Abilify is not bad at all. How long have you been on 10 mg Zyprexa?

2-3 weeks, I think. Ballpark. I forget what the date of my last session was, and I started taking 10mg a few days before it.

I just feel like Zyprexa is doing a marvelous job at keeping my psychosis (and the severe freaked-out agitation it would give me) away, but it's not really bearing on my mood at all. It seems to be a great anti-psychotic, literally, but my mood is waxing and waning weirdly throughout the day, every day, lately. Between feeling like "everything is great" and then randomly getting tearful over nothing or something stupid, and anxiety has started to creep up. I'm getting crazy intrusive dumb thoughts again, to the point that I'm having a difficult time with stairs.

My body is also being hella-weird. I've been on the depo-provera injection for quite a while, haven't had a period in forever. Suddenly I'm having one, sort of, and getting lower back pains. And I'm gaining wait just around my mid-section so it's starting to look like I'm pregnant. I'm just so ugh today lol.

[Moogieotter]

Hi,

Sorry your struggles continue. I'd give the Zyprexa at least until ur next checkup to level off. Do you have issues w street drugs or alcohol?

Lamictal seems like a good option.

moogs

[Blue_Bird]

Antipsychoics have mood stabilizing properties, maybe she just wants to wait and see how you do on the Abilify. It's good when a doctor doesn't want to start piling up meds, especially before figuring out what works and what doesn't

[~Christina]

Lamictal is a good mood stabilizer it mainly works on the depresssion side of Bipolar. Its well tolerated. Yes there is that risk of SJS rash but that happens in less than 4% of people who take it. So it is rare.

Personally I would want to give a mood stabilizer a shot before I added another AP or AAP. All Ad's fing me right into a hellish mixed so I cant go that route.

[CopperStar]

Originally Posted by Moogieotter

Hi,

Sorry your struggles continue. I'd give the Zyprexa at least until ur next checkup to level off. Do you have issues w street drugs or alcohol?

Lamictal seems like a good option.

moogs

Yeah I went ahead and took my dosage for this evening. I used to have drinking/weed stints years ago, but it's been a while. I don't mix street drugs with prescriptions because then I can't tell how well (or not) the prescription is working.

Originally Posted by Blue_Bird

Antipsychoics have mood stabilizing properties, maybe she just wants to wait and see how you do on the Abilify. It's good when a doctor doesn't want to start piling up meds, especially before figuring out what works and what doesn't

I know you're right. I'm just in a very I guess dramatic and ugh state of mind today.

[SillyKitty]

I, too, would ask about Lamictal. Maybe a small dose. I've had good results with Lamictal on many varying dosages.

[Secretum]

Antipsychotics are often used as mood stabilizers. Given your history, I doubt that your doctor thought your illness was too "mild" to warrant treatment with a mood stabilizer. More likely, she knew you were susceptible to psychosis, and since APs have mood stabilizing properties in addition to their antipsychotic effects, she thought she could kill two birds with one stone.