Comments | bipolarsurvival: Lithium and Other Successful Treatments

seaofzen in bipolarsurvival

Lithium and Other Successful Treatments

May 26, 2009 18:40

Hello. I'm new here, and fairly new to the diagnosis. I was diagnosed a few years ago, but my family disagreed with it and wouldn't accept it, and so I just tried handling it naturally. It didn't work, and I have struggled hellishly for several years, with worsening mania's and depressions, until recently it became life threatening, and I was ( Read more... )

newly diagnosed, diagnosis, risperdal, lithium

Comments 11

littledeadgirl7 May 27 2009, 02:25:12 UTC

I'm not on lithium, but am on abilify and currently coming off zyprexa. I have been not been hospitalized for 1 year and seven months. My longest stretch of stability and no hospitalizations ever was 2.5 years. I'm hoping to break that record :)

good luck.

happyhijabi May 27 2009, 02:26:31 UTC

All of Kay Redfield Jamison's books are quite nice. I also like her book "Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide" I have been on treatment since I was dx'd, I did very well on just Lamictal for a time - was fabulous for depression I just thought was a normal part of life, that I had just lived with for so long. I then went into psychosis and mania and had to have meds adjusted - had a very hard time with antipsychotics as 3 of the ones we tried made me have very nasty akathisia. My old pdoc kept me on only Lamictal, I was really doing bad and then I started hearing voices and went psychotic again. I had to change pdocs & my new one added to the Lamictal, Topamax, Seroquel (which was a big life changer) and Risperdal as needed - I love risperdal. For me whatever side effects they have with the exception of akathisia are worth it, just so I don't have psychosis or hear voices. Anyways meds for me are definitely the way to go, again so I don't head over to psychotic land & no voices (they scare the hell out of me) Meds are ( ... )

pandabear_23 May 27 2009, 02:46:04 UTC

What does "akathisia" mean? I haven't heard of that before.

flight_of_owls May 27 2009, 04:18:32 UTC

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia for an in-depth explanation, but basically it's a sensation that you are unable to keep still, extremely restless, etc. Honestly, it sort of reminds me of when I am hypomanic, and I feel like I am going to bounce of the walls. I am constantly bouncing or fidgeting or moving about. It can be mild or severe.

happyhijabi May 27 2009, 05:47:00 UTC

It was nothing at all like hypomania. I had it crazy severe & was hospitalized, given injections of ativan and was basically detoxed off of the antipsychotics for days in the hospital. They tried to give me 4 mg of cogentin & valium to use at home and that did little to nothing... but yea, most people do not have it that severe. When my pdoc ever mentions other antipsychotics I get really really nervous. It is like pace pace pace, sit - have to stand up again - scream, pace pace pace pace.... want to rip out your hair, claw your chest, kill yourself to get it to stop, dig out your eyes, pace pace pace like an animal really fast... scream because it never stops.. Torture really. They did induce it chemically in political prisioners in the cold war (pdoc has info about this) with high doses of haldol. It was really used as a form of torture.

Thread 5

flight_of_owls May 27 2009, 04:16:25 UTC

I'm being treated with 1200 mg Lithium daily (and Effexor XR, to be fair) and the Lithium really hasn't posed any serious problems for me. I did have some nausea when I first started it, but once I had been on it regularly for a few weeks that disappeared. I can definitely notice a difference in my mood swings, and in the ... strength, shall we say, of the moods themselves.

I'd definitely suggest it as a good medication for treating Bipolar disorder. It's also something to feel hopeful about because it is the most well-known and longest used medication around to treat mania and Bipolar that is still commonly used today.

flight_of_owls May 27 2009, 04:20:21 UTC

I haven't read An Unquiet Mind, but have heard mixed reviews. I, personally, would recommend Madness: A Bipolar Life by Marya Hornbacher.

If you suffer severe mania, or even if you don't (I myself am Bipolar II), I also quite enjoyed reading Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania by Andy Behrman.

anneinside May 27 2009, 04:21:53 UTC

I also have akathisia. It started again when my pdoc increased Abilify to 20mg a day. I was in the hospital at the time and took Cogentin for the akathisia, which worked ( ... )