You said you had trouble sleeping.
I take Melatonin from the health food store or from the net.
If you try it, you might start off with 1 mg. tablet and see how it works, that's what I take. 3 mgs must be OK, for they sell 3 mg pills.
Some say check with your doctor or druggist to see if they conflict with your meds. My psychiatrist just told me a few days ago at my latest appt., "Melatonin is OK. I have no trouble with you taking Melatonin."
You also said,
"I have OCD PURE-O and GAD. My doc prescribed Zoloft to me today but I am afraid to start taking it."
1. Is your doctor a psychiatrist? That might be the preferred type of doctor for this situation.
2. Have you been diagnosed as bipolar?
You said, "Last time I was on Citalopram I became afraid I was going hypomanic"
Hypomanic meaning a lower form of full mania, meaning you think you may be bipolar? Have you been diagnosed with that? Have you had experiences which lead you to believe that is the case?
You say: "The problem is that it is hard to tell what is anxiety/worry and what is real fear." You also have anxiety?
Some anti-depressants also have a calmative effect, and they can treat both, so you and I are in luck cause I have anxiety also, in addition to my bi-polar.
I take Lithium for bipolar, it lifts the depression, and lowers the mania.
I also take Mirtazapine for depression, which my psychiatrist probably gives me because she thinks it won't throw me into mania. I've never really thought a lot about
that, but I guess anti-depressants could do that.
You say, "I tried many medication without success (Fluoxetine, Cymbalta, Brintellix, Lexapro, Celexa/Citalopram).
Last time I was on Citalopram I became afraid I was going hypomanic"
So you have had some difficult experiences with meds.
You say: "I am very afraid of bipolar disorder because I can't tolerate meds"
As a bipolar, I am not afraid of bipolar. With my bad experiences with untreated depression and mania, my fear is continuing to be depressed and manic. Those are troubling, also.
You say, "When I was on Citalopram I got a bit impulsive and I can't say if I was normal happy or hypomanic happy"
I sounds like you worry about
worrying. You did mention obsessive/compulsive. What has helped me is to try to be positive that I can solve a problem, and look for ways that I can solve the problem, and not concentrate on ways the problem can defeat me.
It took me awhile to understand that. I was raised in a negative household, plus I had bipolar. I wonder how I got to be negative?
Were you raised in a negative household?
Instead of afraid of being bipolar (a negative), can't we be glad that they have medicine that treat bipolar? (a positive).
Instead of being afraid that the next med won't work (a negative), can't we be hopeful that the next med will work?
The famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh, had bipolar, but in the mid to late 1800s, they had no Lithium or any other med for that. My mother's mother had bipolar in the 1930s to 1950s, but they had no medicine for that.
So you and I don't have any problems compared to what they had. We should get down on our knees in thanks that we live in an era when they do have such medicines. Our cup runneth over.
Also, my dad had high blood pressure in the 1960s, and they did not have effective medicines at that time. Do you think he walked around worrying about
having to take his b/p pill? No, he was wishing they had an effective one.
You say: "When I was on Citalopram I got a bit impulsive and I can't say if I was normal happy or hypomanic happy. I mean when your mood lifts after a long time depressed you can get even more happier just because of that feeling right? Also I think it started working too quickly (within a week)."
Sounds like you're guessing at what your diagnosis is. It's good that you reached out for help, I wish I had reached out sooner to a problem helping website like this. So you're very smart. You do take action.
You say, "I really need something to deal with my insomnia and anxiety/obsessions but feel so afraid of going "hyper". I heard Zoloft is the most stimulating and dangerous med IF you are bipolar?"
You are very right to be concerned about
this. You are very smart.
You can look up on the web search engine by typing in "bipolar" to see if any of that matches what you think you might have.
Here's what I found by typing into search engine, "anti-depressants make you manic" in what I think I may have typed. Under webmed.com it said:
(It does say, don't treat bipolar with just one med, for it flips people from depressive to manic. It says treat bipolar with two meds. My psych treats me with Lithium and an anti-depressant. So you're absolutely right to be concerned about
this.)
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"The use of traditional antidepressants to treat bipolar depression is considered experimental. This is because these medicines have not been proven effective for treating bipolar depression and, therefore, none are FDA approved for that indication. There is no research to show that they have any greater benefit than taking a mood stabilizer (such as lithium or Depakote) alone. Many of the existing studies of their efficacy have focused mainly on people with unipolar rather than bipolar disorder.
"Using antidepressant medication alone to treat a depressive episode is not recommended in people with bipolar I disorder. The drugs may flip a person, particularly a person with bipolar I disorder, into a manic or hypomanic episode. Hypomania is a more subdued version of mania. Using antidepressants alone also may lead to or worsen rapid cycling in some bipolar patients. In rapid cycling, a person has 4 or more distinct episodes of mania/hypomania or depression over a 1-year period. This person may be more prone to experience a relapse or the next phase of illness sooner and more often than people without rapid cycling.
"Nevertheless, there are many different types of antidepressants sometimes used to treat depression in people with bipolar disorder. If an antidepressant is effective, it usually takes at least 4-6 weeks for people to respond to treatment. Sometimes a doctor will try several different medicines before finding one that might work for a patient. These medications include SSRIs such as Zoloft or Prozac, SNRIs such as Effexor, and novel antidepressants such as Wellbutrin."
Post Edited (Tim Tam) : 4/13/2017 10:59:22 AM (GMT-6)