[laur88]

Mine are relatively fast, except when I get stuck in a depression (yuck!)

Some of my cylces been as short as 1 or 2 days and as long as, well, months (of depression, not hypomania).

[ecrjones]

Originally Posted by laur88

Mine are relatively fast, except when I get stuck in a depression (yuck!)

Some of my cylces been as short as 1 or 2 days and as long as, well, months (of depression, not hypomania).

____

Hi
My cycles are so random. When I was younger they were mostly depressions - sometimes lasting months, eeking along like a ghost. Then I could tip/launch into a hypomanic state and state super functional for months until my brain blew up and I'd enter a horrible mixed state.

The last memorable cycle was recently. I went into a anxiety-driven hypomanic state in October '09 which tipped into erratic behaviour, unpredictability at work and fear of myself. I was sharp enough to recognise that, after an episode of missing time which resulted in my locking myself out of the house (got a locksmith to let me back in at 4am), I needed to seek help. I'd been out of the system for 18 months or so and thought I was strong enough to managed myself unaided - so wrong! Within a couple of days of seeking help and getting the initial assessments out of the way I slipped into a deep depression - probably four weeks after seeking help (mid/late November). I was trying out and titrating Lamotrigine, but it was taking its time to kick in. Then over Christmas it all lifted and I felt normal. Then in April I started to speed up again and got loads done, got a promotion, felt invincible! Then my brain turned in on itself and I started hearing random stuff and having what I call 'bubble bursts' where my brain and thoughts seem to bounce around in my skull. I've been all over the place - up and down, angry, despairing etc. - all summer. And now I'm depressed.
My cycles a awful and now reading back my post to you, apparently quite fast of late.

Emma

[Andydontsurf]

Originally Posted by laur88

Mine are relatively fast, except when I get stuck in a depression (yuck!)

Some of my cylces been as short as 1 or 2 days and as long as, well, months (of depression, not hypomania).

You're like me. I've been depressed for months and I get one or two days of hypomania. I cycle pretty fast.

[blueoctober]

How long have you've been diagnosed and on meds laur88?

Prior to 2007 my depressions wouldn't last longer than a month. I also always explained away my depression as "burn out".

In June 2007 I experienced the worst major depression I have ever experienced. I went on anti-d's that through me into a mixed state; I attempted and in September I ended up in the Psychiatric hospital for 6 weeks. This is where I was diagnosed.

After being diagnosed I think I was on too many/the wrong meds and for the past year and a half my mood has alternated between mild and major depression. I had a med change at the end of May and since July my mood has been fairly stable. I also started to track my mood at http://www.medhelp.org/land/mood-tracker and that helps me stay on top of things.

My hypomania only lasts a couple of days, but in the last month I have had mixed episode episodes again. I have decreased my anti-d and that has helped.

[laur88]

I was diagnosed this past June. Still working on finding a balance medication-wise. Right now I'm on lamictal and have just been prescribed ambien to help me sleep when I get anxious at night and can't sleep.

If those meds don't work out, I might end up taking some anti-anxiety or anti-depressants.

Friday and Saturday and most of today I was definitely in a manic stage. Had some really upsetting things happen tonight and broke down for a couple hours and I'm hoping they won't trigger anything bad... Only time will tell. I hate that I have no control over this because I like to feel in control (as I think most people do).

[laur88]

Oh, and another question: did any of you take meds that made you cycle faster? (I was on sertraline and my doc thought it made me cycle more dramatically - higher highs and lower lows)

[blueoctober]

Originally Posted by laur88

Oh, and another question: did any of you take meds that made you cycle faster? (I was on sertraline and my doc thought it made me cycle more dramatically - higher highs and lower lows)

Sertraline is a SSRI anti-d and for some people with BP even with a mood stabilizer it can be a bad combo. That may be why you felt you cycled more on it. Were you on it prior to being diagnosed or was it when you were on a mood stabilizer? For me being on an anti-d without a mood stabilizer is a recipe for disaster.

[dance59326]

I used to cycle really fast, but now I don't really cycle fast at all, I just get mad, but I try to hold my anger in. It's just skills and therapy over time. Depression takes me a longer time though to get out of. I was in such a major slump that I couldn't go to work but now I got hired at a new job and I start on Friday
take care,
~ dance59326

[Nina23]

i'm depressed most of the time. i'd say once every 3 months i get crazy manic- which i love. i'm the most artistic when im manic.

[ariatboot]

I seem to cycle pretty fast. Most of my time is spent in depression with a week here or there of normal baseline moods and up to 5 or 6 days of hypomanic. But I would say that the majority of my time (95%) is in depression and if I get out of it its never longer then a week to 10 days. If I take too many anti-depressents it will send me into a very anxiety filled hypomanic state.

[BlackPup]

At first I thought that I was cycling up and down all over the place, but then when i stepped back at looked at things over a longer time period I saw a slower pattern. My highs are still relatively short, up to a month with only 1-2 weeks of hypo/mania. My depressions are from a few months to over a year, and while there may be normal days in there, I never get back to a consistently normal mood during these depressive episodes.
Normal moods are variable, I had 1 year early on in my illness (a bit like the indian summer Kay Jamison describes in Unquiet minds), since then 6 months has been the longest and there have been a couple of about a month or so.

Meds definitely affect the type and length of moods for me. They can make moods more difficult to pick - when I take risperidone, I 'm exhausted and less manic but am I still a little manic? It's harder to tell.
ADs make my moods less stable but they do make them less depressed on average.
Lithium blunted both the troughs and the peaks, but it made it my moods a bit "muddy", that is manias were more dysphoric (which also could have been associated with disease progression) and during depressions I would get more agitated and irritable.

My cycles are generally monthly, although thanks to my BPD I can have some micropsychotic episodes that last less than a day.

I cycle into depression about every three months, and an episode lasts a few weeks. I rarely go hypomanic or manic, more I get into mixed states when I'm depressed.

[Moreta]

i used to have mostly depressed episodes, sprinkled with hypomania. Lately, it's been becoming more of a daily roller coaster ride of emotions. Trying to have more stable time though.

[laur88]

Originally Posted by blueoctober

Sertraline is a SSRI anti-d and for some people with BP even with a mood stabilizer it can be a bad combo. That may be why you felt you cycled more on it. Were you on it prior to being diagnosed or was it when you were on a mood stabilizer? For me being on an anti-d without a mood stabilizer is a recipe for disaster.

No, I wasn't diagnosed with bipolar when I was on antidepressants. I went for about a little less than two years on just antidepressants (switched meds a couple times) before I was diagnosed with bipolar II. Basically it was a disaster because when I went into hypomania, I would feel invincible and, as a result, stop taking my meds. This made my falls into depression even worse. No fun! Right now I'm pretty sure I'm a little bit manic so I feel pretty optimistic about the meds I'm on now but looking to the past I see that it's a little sketchy... I guess only time will tell!

[thinker22]

Technically (according to the pdoc), I've been in the same mixed episode for the past 2 years plus because I never had a recovery time between depression and the mania I experienced last summer (9 weeks) and the hypomania I experienced in May of '08. I think I'm finally between episodes and that one is now over. So, if I remain stable and neither manic nor depressed, there has only been one episode in the past 3 years. The next one may be anything, but I'm trying not to think about that. Want the meds to keep working their magic.

[sugahorse1]

I hardly am up. Hypomania is rare. I'm fairly stable, but at the moment I've been thrown into serious depression for about 2 days every 2 weeks. Not sure if that makes sense...?

[romanjames2004]

For me it depends really. There are times where I'm deressed for two days and them manic for two days. Or depresssed for three weeks and manic for 1 week. After a while it gets really overwhelming.

[fingers1]

Originally Posted by romanjames2004

For me it depends really. There are times where I'm deressed for two days and them manic for two days. Or depresssed for three weeks and manic for 1 week. After a while it gets really overwhelming.

Is there anyone out there who has a really slow cycle ?
Am the only one ?.
My history shows that this happens to me about every ten years or so.
In fact I don't believe that I have a cycle as I now think that all of my
hypomanias have been triggered by Light or lack of light.
Seasonal affective disorder. (undiagnosed)
With hypomania I eat tons of carbs which result in me moving towards depression.

Its only after a long time that you can read the signs.

fingers1

All of my crashed into depression have occurred in late autumn after
long periods of hypomania.

[neverending]

For most of my life I have been depressed. The depression being years, decades. Looking back there may have been mixed states with anxiety, irritability, rages, etc along with the depression but never any high feeling cycles or stable moods.

When I moved down south my mood was better maybe just a low depression with maybe mixed again until suddenly, after being on prozac or Zoloft for decades I had to be hospitalized for Prozac induced mania, which they immediately discontinued. That happened 5 days before they hospitalized me.

Only SSRIs work for my depression so now I m on paxil. But since the hospital and especially since I moved into a sunnier apartment I have been doing mixed moods and rapid cycling between hypomania and depression. If the hypomania climbs to bad I take the seroquel which stops the climb.

I firmly believe the sunlight down here has reduced the severity of my depression but has started the rapid cycling.

I don't know if I will ever experience a stable mood for more than an occasional day or two. My baseline is low level depression with maybe some mixed in it. I am just in the process of learning my moods. Plus not even taking in account theethe BPD.

[Blitter2014]

According to my charts about every 5 days, almost predictable in nature. Keeping the charts helps me see where I am at and helps me a little bit know when not to trust my thinking.

I still end up doing damage when manic or down though. LOL. Got to love it. I am so well trained in clean up damage control, I just wish I could find a job I could use those talents in