FAQ/Help |
Calendar |
Search |
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#21
Quote:
Welcome to the forum, AutumnW0lf. I'm so glad you're starting to come out of what sounds like a hellish depression. How long was the episode? __________________ |
|
Reply With Quote |
AutumnW0lf
|
AutumnW0lf
|
Member
Member Since Apr 2021
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 40
2 23 hugs
given |
#22
It started at the beginning of February after a bad manic episode and is still going on, but I'm better now. I was prescribed Wellbutrin, so hopefully the depression will be gone soon
|
Reply With Quote |
Poohbah
Member Since May 2014
Location: Betelgeuse
Posts: 1,472
9 1,217 hugs
given |
#23
I respectfully disagree. Mixed states are way worse. More like trying to paddle an ocean liner with a broken toothpick...while you can't stop crying. 😁
__________________ You're only given one little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. ~ Robin Williams Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? ~ Pink Floyd |
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
Member
Member Since May 2021
Location: middle of nowhere
Posts: 242
2 476 hugs
given |
#25
Quote:
Being unable to talk when depressed is one of my biggest issues. It's really tough and I don't know what to do about it. |
|
Reply With Quote |
Werewoman
|
Veteran Member
Member Since Dec 2020
Location: Hungary
Posts: 505
3 172 hugs
given |
#26
Quote:
Then about 10 years into the nearly 20 years, I got the first manic + mixed episodes.... I've read in a very good article about how atypical depression differs from "typical" depression (apart from being the "male" version of depression), and how it does often end up in bipolar, I can find it if you or anyone else wants me to. It also said that typical depression responds well to serotonin based meds while atypical depression responds to dopamine based meds. That fits my experience too. Btw, your mixed episodes, sounds a lot like what I had for years, ecstatic states plus the extreme anxiety (the latter being "unfelt" and unrecognised in my case). I just didn't really have the anger much with it. If someone has the "bipolar genes", then yeah, giving ADs can make their bipolar come out sooner in life. Untreated unipolar depression can turn out into bipolar too like it did in my case of atypical dysthymia (I'm not sure how the "typical" depression fares there, other than what that article said). Did the benzos do anything for you? |
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#27
The benzo (Klonopin) was helpful for about 2 years. Unfortunately, the helpfulness wore off after that and I ended up stuck with a physical addiction to the stuff. I'm currently doing a very, very slow reduction of Klonopin - after having been on it for 20 years.
I would very much like to read the article, if it's not too much trouble to find it. Thanks! __________________ |
Reply With Quote |
Veteran Member
Member Since Dec 2020
Location: Hungary
Posts: 505
3 172 hugs
given |
#28
Quote:
I'll read that article, thank you for the link. For now I'd just say, I don't link hypersomnia or paralysis to bipolar, and never heard of this being specific to bipolar mood problems, other than the association between atypical depression developing into bipolar depression later. I think what you call pure depression is what I've seen called typical depression, yeah. I very rarely have that myself, too. I shut down emotionally instead and stuff, I used to have full-on paralysis-like states (thank god that ended), but will react well to positive events from the outside. That's unlike typical/pure depression for sure. If I lose the ability to react to positive stuff like that, then I know I'm deep and I'll get out of there immediately. I don't feel typical/pure depression is me at all. Atypical depression or dysthymia, yeah, I don't want it either but that's just how depression manifests for me. I tolerate it better because it fits my brain better, I figure. And the bipolar episodes of course, I don't see it as too strongly related. I dunno. What I do personally link with bipolar though is acute depressions, because they feel like I still have an unstable mood with them, even if not manic or mixed. It just feels like, I don't even know. It's acutely negative and if it goes on and gets deep enough then it can become a crisis. I link it with unstable mood for that reason, maybe, because it's not simply being sad or low, but can go from high to an acute low like this later. The thinking is acutely negative too though not manic or positive at all for sure. Manic only in the sense that it's intense, lol. It's hard to explain though. I'm not sure if it's just agitation either because I never showed agitation, it would all be inside my head. Just so acute and unstable. I don't know if anyone on here relates, I talked to someone with bipolar once who had it and I loaned the term from them "acute depression" because I recognised myself in it. Mixed episodes are again a different animal. That has more rapid thinking, some of it postive, ecstatic etc,.... and a lot of crazy anxiety states/thoughts in my case (without me even recognising them as anxiety). Not simply being acutely low and negative, but specifically anxiety, as in, scary ideas/thoughts racing around in your head etc. |
|
Reply With Quote |
Werewoman
|
Werewoman
|
Veteran Member
Member Since Dec 2020
Location: Hungary
Posts: 505
3 172 hugs
given |
#29
Quote:
There are anti-anxiety medications that have nothing to do with benzos, though, hope you'll find one that works for you. I found the article, it was a long time ago that I read it but I remembered it because it made so much sense for me lol. I see now that it links both depressions to bipolar, except it's bipolar I vs II. That part is probably theorising. Also, it calls atypical "anergic", and typical "anxious" here. It's here: Proposed endophenotypes of dysthymia: evolutionary, clinical and pharmacogenomic considerations | Molecular Psychiatry |
|
Reply With Quote |
*Beth*
|
*Beth*
|
catches the flowers
Member Since Jul 2019
Location: Downtown Vibes, California
Posts: 15,701
(SuperPoster!)
4 23.7k hugs
given |
#30
Quote:
Thank you - the article is educational, for sure. I definitely belong in the "anxious dysthymic" category. *sigh* __________________ |
|
Reply With Quote |
Alive99
|
Veteran Member
Member Since Dec 2020
Location: Hungary
Posts: 505
3 172 hugs
given |
#31
Quote:
I wanted to respond to this too. Yeah I've had the feeling. I used to not think I needed help or talk or whatever,.... Now that I'm more out of the episodes (that I had for nearly a decade.....), I'm more focused on just depressive symptoms themselves, and this has been an issue lately for me actually because I want to fight them and that was when I realised I should be talking to people to get help/input from them so I feel a bit better and do things more and just felt like I couldn't. The one workaround I found for that for now is, because by the evening/at night it all slowly gets better, I wait until then to be able to think about it and figure out what I'll say and do, when I'm to talk to others to get help. And then I write it down on a paper or I try to talk to someone right away (if it's not crazy late yet). And then I can ask them to talk to me next day when I'm too low to try and do it on my own. That's worked sometimes so far I don't know if you have any better hours during the day like that but if you do, it's worth a try using it for your strategy to deal/cope with it all. |
|
Reply With Quote |
Werewoman
|
mssweatypalms, Werewoman
|