Are Mood Stabilizers the Key to Bipolar ??

I am new to really fighing this bipolar thing, I am type II, and my resources seems to say that instead of anti-depressant being the most important, that a mood stabilizer is...wondering what your thoughts were on this...I recently started Cymbalta, on week 3 as of today at 60 mg, and I take tiny amount of depakote 375 mg a day which will probably be greatly increased at my next doc visit on 5/11... I would appreciate feed back. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply, I have been on anti-depressants for 15 years, first Zoloft then Paxil which pooped out on my earlier this year. I was initially diagnosed as having depression at 15 1/2 but before age 30 it was changed to bipolar II -- I had a hard time believing that I was diagnosed correctly because I only had one episode in 2007; but with major life stress hitting in Nov 2010 I am suffering my second and the paxil poop out. Freaked me out when the med stopped working and all the anxiety, depression etc came flooding in and I was not so sure it was going to leave or that my psychiatrist could help me....I HATE medication I am very fearful that I will have all the side effects....so far my only issue has been nasuea, trouble sleeping (frequent waking up then going right back to sleep a lot of that), and tremor...I have to give this med time because its easy to say that its not working and give up. I have 3 small children that I have to fight this illness for. I noticed after the 1st week that the deep depression that was plaguing me had lifted a bit and I have to keep positive and give it a month at least. Heard great things about this med from the pharmacist I talked to today.

I have to try my best to work full time job, and I to be careful of medication because I have to have great focus in my industry; I have been taking off way more than I ever due because of this episode, and being at home does not make me feel better either. Oh well, I will do my best to fight this, and I have strong faith in GOD -- I feel that he is healing me of this episode and leveling out whatever is going on in my body.

What do you mean by "mood stabilizer"? There are the anti-depressants, the anti-seizures, the anti-psychotics, and the atypical anti-psychotics. All of them are used to stabilize mood. Most bipolars need a combination of medications from different groups to find balance.

Thanks for the positive replies! I have such a fear of being on medication, totally freaks me out and causes anxiety and panic attacks at the first "sign" of a side effect. My mind can freak me out so that I think that I am having side effects and I will totally back down on the dose doc approved or not. Going through my 2nd ever bipolar II episode brought on by extrememe stress and this one is lasting longer than the first, we are in month 5....it has not gotten a lot better, I just notice that I am very depressed and crying and so much guilt -- guilt that I am not at my job working because I am needed there, and guilt that I dont have my 2 year old with me all day long while I am not working, I continue to send her to my grandmas where she stays during the day while I work, I need to stop feeling guilty for all this because its not me that is causing the illness and I have to get better for my 3 kids - 9, 6 and almost 3. I am taking a leave of absence from work hopefully only for a couple weeks until I get more stable because I am not much use at work or productive, but when I am at home I just want to sleep a lot but I have for force myself to just get up and I sit around thinking about how I "feel" all day long and just really sucks. So glad there are others in my shoes or who have been there as I need as much support as I can get.

Husband tries but he does not try hard enough to be there for me, he thinks that if we dont talk about it I wont think about it and get upset -- yeah right. I just want him to hold me and be there for me that is all I ask is that too much??

I am forgetful on mood stabilizers, however I take a tiny dose of zyprexa at night 2.5 mg. if I feel I'm not going to be able to sleep. I am cycling now on Lexapro, but the Zyprexa spaces me out and it's also a weight gainer. I don't like how I am on Zyprexa, but there's a lot of denial associated with my cycling and it's probably worse and more dysfunctional than I think. Need to consult with my husband. Of course, there are other things you can do like yoga, etc... getting enough sleep.