[emgreen]

I'm on a hefty dose of AD's right now, but don't feel like I'm experiencing a super-elevated mood swing - in fact, I'm still depressed. Anyone else here able to take significant doses of SSRIs & not get plunged into mania? My experience makes me question my diagnosis since I know they have that effect on many with bipolar disorder. My downs have ALWAYS far outnumbered my highs...& I have had only one psychotic episode. I know you're not doctors, but I'm hoping one of you slept in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[Tucson]

SSRIs do not push me into mania even at at high dosages. I believe there are many people like myself. So I think you should not place much weight on SSRIs not causing mania with you.

[Sunflower123]

I'm on high doses as well and never go into hypomania or mania. I question my diagnosis as well because all I have are downs. I've never been hypomanic.

I'm obviously not a dr, but my pdoc said that people with bipolar disorder either get hypo/mania/mixed from ADs, or ADs just don't work at all. You may be experiencing the latter, so I wouldn't count out the BP diagnosis.

You should def ask your pdoc about that information, but I'm just passing along what I've heard.

I get manic though on high doses of ADs.

[CloserToTheMid]

The results of ADs for me where cataclysmic. It was gradual over two years. The full manic episode it culminated in was when I first learned I was bipolar. My daughter, however is a BP I who is mainly depressed. She has taken ADs for a couple of years with only an occasional mania. Never a full episode. I've wondered about her diagnosis, too. Mainly, she seems depressed, but the doctor and therapist are certain...AND she has my genes.

I would say, trust your doctor and go to them if there is a problem. You have the advantage of already knowing that you're bipolar and you know what to look for.

[WildcatVet]

AD's pushed me from MDD depression to full blown manic issues. Whether it would have surfaced eventually or not I don't know but it was awfully co-incidental. Withdrawing from the last AD I was on didn't help...now I'm ultra rapid cycling and also experiencing mixed episodes.
Still, the AD's were appropriate treatment at the time.

[~Christina]

Doxipin is the only thing I can tolerate .....it only helps me sleep.

Right now I'm rage-y manic.

[Carmina]

I have been on antidepressants many times and they have never brought about mania - although SSRIs did make me very edgy and nervy - they just don't do a lot for my low mood either.

That's if I have BP anyway - questioning this diagnosis

[UpDownAround]

I titrated wellbutrin to below what made me hypo and it works for me. SSRI = yeeha!

[liveforsummer]

On cipralex in feb, made my hypo after a week. Tried it again in June and it made me mixed.

[neverending]

Up north I thought I only had depression. Looking back, I probably experienced mixed episodes with severe depression. I basically started ssris when prozac came out, n ssris are the only type of meds that help my depression. I m not able to go off them.

It wasn't until I moved down south that I experienced the mood swings n after hospitalization for my first manic episode was forced to accept the new diagnosis of bipolar. It did take me quite awhile to come to terms with it. I had no problem with the MDD diagnosis most of my life, I just didn't want to accept the bipolar. But then constantly experiencing the mood swings, I couldn't deny it.

Now I do seem to be on a good medicine cocktail n m still experiencing stability, but my ssri AD is still part of that cocktail. N there is absolutely no question that I m bipolar.

So my conclusion is yes, some people with bipolar can safely take ADs.

[BipolaRNurse]

I agree. I'm on a baby dose of Celexa and am doing just fine with it. Wellbutrin, OTOH, made me street-rat crazy and I'll never take it again.

[Carmina]

Originally Posted by neverending

Up north I thought I only had depression. Looking back, I probably experienced mixed episodes with severe depression. I basically started ssris when prozac came out, n ssris are the only type of meds that help my depression. I m not able to go off them.

It wasn't until I moved down south that I experienced the mood swings n after hospitalization for my first manic episode was forced to accept the new diagnosis of bipolar. It did take me quite awhile to come to terms with it. I had no problem with the MDD diagnosis most of my life, I just didn't want to accept the bipolar. But then constantly experiencing the mood swings, I couldn't deny it.

Hope you don't mind me asking about this, I seem to be going through very much the same thing at the moment. Decades of depression, probably pretty constant in some form but several phases of major clinical depression. Looking back I suppose I could also describe that as 'mixed episodes with severe depression' - mostly I have managed to survive at least, if not always function well. I have had my ups as well as downs but the ups have never gotten to the point of what people describe as 'mania'. I guess I do have periods of what some people are now calling 'hypomania' in that I have relatively lucid periods where my mind goes at a rate of knots and my creativity and ability to make mental connections is off the scale, but they are not usually lengthy periods and tend to coincide with insights at work in my research or when I'm painting, making music or writing, so up till now I have always seen them as brief periods of 'normal me' where I'm doing something I enjoy and connecting with others intellectually. I am loath to pathologize this and even more loath to take some drug that might risk me losing that capacity and that would blunt my emotional responses which are important to me creatively. Reading the literature I do wonder if this concept of hypomania can sometimes lead to psychiatrists over diagnosing and confusing normality with pathology, some of the constructs within it seem tenuous and have the usual lack of criticality and category errors I associate with psychiatry (which is not exactly a science to put it bluntly).

[Guiness187055]

Wellbutrin is all that works for me.

[neverending]

Carmina. I don't know how to reference posts so I will reply addressing you by your username. My depressions had no ups, even normallicy except creatively. In otherwords by practicing my instruments and really getting into my music and by painting, and really getting into that, I would go into self induced periods of mania during the process. Whether right or wrong, I never considered that bipolar mania. However because of my high agitation and nervousness concurrent with my depressions, and a couple of other symptoms, my last therapist felt those depressions did include mixed episodes.

I firmly believe that my move from north to the south in the US, with the increase in the amount of sunlight I get living down here, is what finally triggered the mood swings characteristic of bipolar. I do believe now I was bipolar all along, just the symptoms of the illness changed with the change in climate. Also I have done a lot of work in therapy and have changed a lot of myself. But it still took medication to get me to stability.

I have been on medication for most of my life, just nothing before now totally worked. I have basically been on APs and ADs since the age of 18, but have never found MEDICATION to be detrimental to my creativity. My symptoms would interfere more than anything else.

Now I am finding I can think more clearly and enjoy more what I do with my hands. However, I m a senior now and my physical health interferes more than my medication in reaching the euphoric state during creativity because I m unable to work through the hours I used to do in that euphoria of creativity. I have a small amount of energy level time that I can work on anything before I have to break off and rest. I can still do beautiful work, but it takes much much longer.

However,again, as others have said, although I personally don't find the medication stopping or negatively affecting creativity, and even find my clearer mind seemingly to enhance it, others have found the opposite to be true, where they have to choose between medication or creativity.

[Shazerac]

ADs work for me and I'm bipolar. I think they effect everyone differently. My manic episodes usually present as a mixed state with a lot of agitation and irritability. I'm on seroquel now also and usually (crosses fingers) I'm pretty stable.

[Carmina]

Originally Posted by neverending

Carmina. I don't know how to reference posts so I will reply addressing you by your username. My depressions had no ups, even normallicy except creatively. In otherwords by practicing my instruments and really getting into my music and by painting, and really getting into that, I would go into self induced periods of mania during the process. Whether right or wrong, I never considered that bipolar mania. However because of my high agitation and nervousness concurrent with my depressions, and a couple of other symptoms, my last therapist felt those depressions did include mixed episodes.

I firmly believe that my move from north to the south in the US, with the increase in the amount of sunlight I get living down here, is what finally triggered the mood swings characteristic of bipolar. I do believe now I was bipolar all along, just the symptoms of the illness changed with the change in climate. Also I have done a lot of work in therapy and have changed a lot of myself. But it still took medication to get me to stability.

I have been on medication for most of my life, just nothing before now totally worked. I have basically been on APs and ADs since the age of 18, but have never found MEDICATION to be detrimental to my creativity. My symptoms would interfere more than anything else.

Now I am finding I can think more clearly and enjoy more what I do with my hands. However, I m a senior now and my physical health interferes more than my medication in reaching the euphoric state during creativity because I m unable to work through the hours I used to do in that euphoria of creativity. I have a small amount of energy level time that I can work on anything before I have to break off and rest. I can still do beautiful work, but it takes much much longer.

However,again, as others have said, although I personally don't find the medication stopping or negatively affecting creativity, and even find my clearer mind seemingly to enhance it, others have found the opposite to be true, where they have to choose between medication or creativity.

Thanks - I think what you experience in creativity I do too - but also in my research as I am both an artist and a scientist. In my painting I have taken myself into some very dark places in order to express my innermost feelings and almost ritualistically work through them. Apart from not using alcohol (or drugs anymore - although in the past I did) I relate well to Pollock's view of painting as something akin to a shamanistic practice.

[RedDawn]

The only AD I can tolerate is Wellbutrin.

Thankfully, it works really well for me.