How did you react when you first started BP medication?

Me: "umm... idk. I guess I'll try it? I've never been on medication before. I'm a bit scared of what it's going to do to me, what it's going to do to my brain. Is this actually safe...? Or are there consequences? I'm not sure... I didn't expect medication so soon! But I guess I should have expected it. Duh."

You?

"I don't need this ****!" I was hypomanic at the time.

I didn’t have choice but I am glad I did. Safe as houses. Try to gauge your mood/s though. It knocks off the highs and lows, but left me too low. Some anti-depressants brought me up to the right level. Now off them and all ok, functioning better than ever in a high power super stressful job in a completely foreign country, Saudia Arabia.

I was just desperate to feel better, so I willing agreed to it.

I had no choice I couldn't go on the way that I was.

I was also desperate and looking for hope. I had been a mental health advocate and had an awareness of the meds used, etc. I was comfortable trying meds; yet, experienced a lot of side-effects and/or allergies.


WC

I think pretty well the same as you Blue and then denial, denial, denial.

I knew I needed medication help as T wasn’t going to fix me before I planned an exit.

I know so many people struggling with taking meds , I don’t it helps me , I got tired of riding the wave white knuckled.

If a person had a physical illness there would little hesitation.

I have psoriatic arthritis I’m trying meds to get relief, no difference that psych meds to me.

I took 'em as a joke. A very morbid one.

I was hypersensitive to the tiniest side effect because I wanted an excuse to off of it! How foolish this seems now.

By then I was...BEGGING...for help and I was the one who insisted on starting meds ASAP...I didn't give a damn about side effects or consequences...because what could be worse than where I was going...or had almost been...

I’ve been off and on meds for anxiety and depression for years so when I got my bp diagnosis I was willing to try anything to make it better.

In 2005 I just wanted attention but I didn’t believe bipolar but I took the meds. I went off them in 2006. In 2012 I was desperate for relief from depression so I was happy to take meds.

When I was first diagnosed I was depressed AF and would have done anything to feel better. So I didn't object to my pdoc prescribing Lamictal for me, and willingly took it even though it was kind of a wild ride at first.

Now, every now and then I look at my med list and wonder how the hell it all came to this. Six psych meds, seven if you count the thyroid medication that helps with depression. But the combination works, so I can't really complain even though I'd love to cut back to one or two meds. LOL like THAT'S gonna happen.

My anxiety was so bad, I was willing to try anything to feel better. And damn, sertraline definitely made me feel better. Holy high.

It was soooooo long ago. Hmmm, I was talked into it, but at the time I was diagnosed with PTSD and MMD so what they put me on was an AD which sent me into a mixed state. Even after the change to BP they kept adding ADs to the mix resulting in mixed episodes so for a long while I was anti meds. When I sought help again I insisted on no ADs and the pdoc I talked to was shocked at the idea that the past Pdocs had insisted on ADs, evidently psychology had come to the conclusion that BP. And AD should rarely be mixed. I'd love to hit some of those early days pdoc upside the head for trying to tell me my reactions to AD was all in my head.

I told my psychiatrist (while giggling) that I would take the drugs to humour her. I was manic, thought the whole situation funny and had no idea what lay ahead.

Everything happened kind of fast for me. I got diagnosed on my first visit to a pdoc and handed a Rx for gabapentin and lamictal. I was like "I guess I'll try them." It felt like that was what I SHOULD do.