[BradleyThompson]

And... The bad thing? The catch-22? I'm petrified of dying.
At least I have my husband, whom I care about more than MY life, itself.
And lately, I've been so irritable and mean to him, which makes things worse.
I love him so much. Sometimes I think he deserves way much better than me. But the fact is, I love him too much to imagine life without him.

I think I've been diagnosed as MILDLY bi-polar. But for the life of me, I can't remember being manic, or even happy. I rate my days re happiness on a scale of 1 thru 10. Used to be four 2s, and three 8s. Now, it's seven 2s. Sound like bi-polar disorder to you?

To paraphrase Huey Lewis...I need a new drug. Any ideas? Chances are, I've tried it. Just what I remember off the top of my head. Since 2001, I've taken: Paxil, Celexa, Wellbutrin (currently on that, but I don't like it.) I'm also supposed to be taking Abilify, but the side effects were horrible, so I stopped.

Can anyone help me?

[Altered Moment]

Have you tried therapy?

With meds many of us go through a whole bunch of them until we find one or some combo that works. There are three new ones out. Fetzima, Viibryd, Brintelex. meds are only a part of the solution and need to go with other non med methods.

If you are bi polar chances are they would also have you on a mood stabilizer such as Lamictal, Tegretol, or Depakote. Abilify is an anti psychotic used as an augmenter for depression.

I have had very good luck with Fetzima and Lamictal recently. I have just about tried them all in the last twenty years. Some worked ok, some not at all, and some quit working. I just keep at it. When I am doing good I try to do the things that would help my depression. Working, exercise, meditation, therapy, group support, family, friends, journaling, posting here, etc. When I am severely depressed I can only make my appointments to my professionals and not much else. I do spend a lot of time on this site when depressed.

[Crook32]

For the past 18 months I have tried so many different drugs I can't even remember them all. I have been diagnosed with depression but they added a mood stabilizer because nothing else was working and they are now thinking I may be mildly bipolar. Right now I am on Wellbutrin, Cymbalta and Latuda. I think the mood stabilizer is what makes the difference. I was on Seroquel and that really helped but I gained 15 pounds in 2 months on it so we stopped it.

Hope you can find the right combination that works. I am still adjusting my dosages but hopefully soon things will stabilize.

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