Does anyone here actually get benefit from an antidepressant w/o...

without having to take a ridiculous amount of anti-manic stuff with it?

My pdoc asked if we should think about adding something for depression right now and I couldn't answer. Lexapro made me manic (wasn't on a mood stabilizer, but was taking 1.1g of Seroquel, you'd think that would quell me), Prozac made me manic (was on an AP and lithium), Effexor helped for a few weeks, then until I got off it was rapid cycling hell. Amoxapine fked up my heart (I don't even remember being on it, but I found a cardiology report I don't remember ever getting saying it's fking up my heart).


Honestly don't even know if not being depressed is a good idea. I feel like slow thoughts and low energy kinda keep me safe.

I'm on Cymbalta, just 30 mg. I have taken 60 mg in the past, but the pdoc thought it made me manic (and maybe it did, I don't know). But anyway, I've been pretty stable on it beyond the normal bipolar ups and downs. When I first started taking it in the spring, it made a noticeable difference within 4-5 days. Very fast. However, by November, my mood was tanking into serious suicidal depression, and that's when my pdoc had me start using the SAD lamp. I didn't think the lamp would do crap but started using it daily to prove him wrong. But that lamp has helped me a ton. Either that, or I'm getting one hell of a placebo effect. It's helped even more than the Cymbalta - I started drawing again after 20 years, baking and enjoying it. I swear I even feel a bit more energized afterward I use the lamp each day.

Of course, there are people with bipolar who have bad results with the SAD lamp turning them manic, I guess you never know until you try. My baseline though seems to stay mostly in the depressed to mixed range, that may be why it helped me and not others. I did take Wellbutrin without it turning me manic, but the Wellbutrin didn't really do anything to help my depression either.

Thanks. I've used SAD lamps before, but I don't think I've ever done it regularly. I usually get told to stop because I can't go 4 days without "manic-like" symptoms even if it's just like how right now I'm five seconds from screaming my fking head off and hopping on I-93 straight tf to Canada.

Nope
………

i do get benefit from celexa but i take risperdal and haldol too

Sertraline literally SAVED MY LIFE!!! Before I was put on it I'd been taking cymbalta for years and it stopped working, and I was depressed for the most part for a very long time. Years. But then when I asked my then psychiatrist to switch me and he did, I improved immensely. Now I'm actually engaging with my family (no more time holed up in the bedroom). I'm also on 200mg of wellbutrin, which is working quite well for the side effect of sertraline I couldn’t stand, AND it's actually helping me quit vaping, which is great. Of course, I also take 400mg of seroquel a night and 50mg of loxapine, so this probably all doesn't even count.

I'm one of the ones that couldn't handle the SAD lamps. Made me feel like I was going insane. Messed with my sleep. Gave me delusional thinking. Not good. It was returned. That thing was EVIL. 😈 Never again!