Giving meds another try after 8 years.

As a bipolar 1, with the full mania, while you say you are bipolar 2, which is hypo or reduced mania, I take Lithium for the mania and Mirtazapine anti-depressant for the depression.

Trintellix net says is an antidepressant.

rxlist.com says Abilify is an antipsychotic, which you said, that is used to treat different ailments including bipolar I.

I'm just curious, what medicines were you taking before and what effects were they having?

Also curious, my mother's mother had bipolar and that's probably where I got it from. Do you think you had a relative who had that?

We are fortunate to live in an era when there are so many medicines available for emotional problems. My mother's mother had bipolar when there was basically no medicine for psychiatric problems.

She spent a lot of her time in a mental hospital 100 miles from her home, again, with no effective medicines. With the medicines today, we can be treated in our homes. It wasn't always like that.

Can you imagine what it would be like to go without medicine? Well, you can. I went for a spell without my medicines, because of fouls up, and it was goshawful.

Yes, it would be nice if these newest meds work for you. But there are a lot more out there, thank goodness.

Thinking positive that you can find the right ones and do well in other areas I have found helps me. Do you generally think positive?

It seems to be yet another story of someone who goes in as depressed, is diagnosed as depressed, is given an anti-depressant.

What’s wrong with that story? If the patient comes in as depressed, there is a good chance they are manic-depressed, but the psychiatrist never asks about that, such as, do you ever have a racing mind, a sign of bipolar.

Since they never ask that question, the client is miss-diagnosed as depressed, miss-medicated and miserable.

In your case, “I used to take antidepressants like Prozac or Celexa and Lexapro. All at different times. They used to work untill I had my first real bi polar episode 10 years ago. thinking it was just depression the antidepressants gave bad side effects that I never had before and made my mood fluctuate rapidly from an almost euphoric high to a crushing low as well as insomnia. I was then put on Lamictal alone a mood stabilizer that did nothing but give me bad headaches and made gain 30 pounds. After that I gave up on meds.”

Then you say, “Trintellix is supposed to be a milder form of ssri and I suppose the abilify is supposed to keep the antidepressant alone from destabilizing me.”

How are you doing on that?

Net said Trintellix is an anti-depressant and that Abilify is an anti-psychotic that is also used to treat bipolar.

I took an anti-psychotic, Stelazine, many years ago, which was used for torture in Russia, after I recommended it, and it was, yeah, it was torture. All I wanted to do was walk, couldn’t concentrate on anything. Never had a peaceful second.

Lost track of time, I didn’t know if 6 minutes was 6 months. Didn’t know if this state of mind was the result of my mental breakdown or the results of the medicine, since one came on top of the other.

Then skipped some years when I got a job and psychiatrist took me off Stelizine, then got put on an anti-depressant alone which caused me panic attacks because I had not been given a stabilizer like Lithium, which I’m on now, along with Mirtazapine anti-depressant. And I’m doing pretty good.

So, I’m just wondering, how are you doing on the anti-psychotic? Stelazine is old timey anti-psychotic, the newer ones are supposed to be better.

Can you ask your mother (or aunts or uncles) if your father showed any signs of bipolar? I think it would be helpful for self-understanding, letting you know you didn’t invent this ailment. It's not your fault. And in case you’re asked if you're bipolar, you could say, "Yes, my dad was."

You can also look on the net for the signs of that ailment, and mentally check off the ones you have. And, again, if ever asked you can point to those signs.

I am glad you are positive. I was not for many years and it really hurt me.