OT - Bipolar Disorder

My husband has atypical bipolar. He was diagnosed about 4 years ago.

I had known about the depression for years. My husband tried to commit suicide the year after we got married. I begged him to get help, but he didn't want a "chemical lobotomy" so we just struggled on with it. Sometimes he was fine, other times so sunk in gloom there seemed to be no way out of it.

He gradually grew worse and worse. He started missing work because he simply could not get out of bed. We talked often about his "plan" for suicide and I urged and urged him to get help.

He finally admitted to his doctor that he was depressed and had a suicide plan 4 years ago. His doctor called me to come and pick him up and take him to the emergency room. This began the long struggle to find the right medication and diagnosis. By this time, my husband was very paranoid and heard voices urging him to kill himself.

One of the first things his psychiatrist thought he had was ADD along with clinical depression. He put my husband on Vyvanse, at which point he became psychotic, but not in a homicidal way, just very strange and hallucinating. This was when his psychiatrist made his bipolar diagnosis, as many bipolar people experience psychosis on the stimulants used to treat ADD.

The psychiatrist also sent my husband to a neurologist for an EEG and MRI of the brain to see if he was epileptic, as my husband has had many visual disturbances that seemed to suggest it. He also sent him for a sleep study. My husband does have mild sleep apnea. Before he was put on medication, he slept way more than normal. Now that he is on medication, he tends to be more on the manic than depressive side so he hardly sleeps at all some days. He could not tolerate the mask they gave him at the titration study, so he is still untreated. Now that he sees the results of my treatment, he is going to get another sleep study, this time at the clinic where I went instead of the other one he went to before.

My husband is on a range of medications, including Wellbutrin, Lamictal, Geodon, Provigil, and Pristiq. He takes levothyroxine and metformin as the other medications have tipped him to hypothyroidism and diabetes. I have put him on fish oil, vitamin B, C, D, and E plus folic acid, as these are all thought to be effective at reducing mania.

Recently I read an article by a writer who claimed to have cured himself of bipolar by avoiding alcohol and sugar for a year. I am a little leery of such a simplistic explanation.

One alternative therapy that can be tried is electromagnetic brain stimulation. When my husband had his MRI, he felt VERY cheerful and happy afterwards. I later learned that this is a common effect on people who are bipolar/depressed. THere are smaller devices available, but since this is considered experimental, you have to pay out of pocket for them.

DreamStalker wrote:Well I finally got the whole story and thought I would update here.

She has had issues with depression for most of her life and said that it runs in her family (mother, brother, and herself). She also mentioned that her and her mother are both worrywarts but that she herself has now learned to let go of things she cannot control.

Anyway, her doctor Rx'd her Cymbalta for her depression about 3 years ago and that is when the mania began -- and after trying to commit suicide she was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar. So she was then prescribed with lithium and she said that turned her into a complete zombie. So she gradually weaned herself off both drugs and tries to deal with her depression as best she can au natural.

Basically, she is not sure if the bipolar is an accurate diagnosis but it is now on her medical records.

Also, she did say that a couple of nights of poor/deficient sleep can throw her into a state of depression.

Hi Dreamstalker,

Your friend may be right as Joseph Glenmullen, a psychiatrist who wrote the Antidepressant Solution has said that bipolar disorder cannot be diagnosed on the basis of a manic reaction to an antidepressant since that is not an uncommon side effect. She would have to have had a history of bipolar disorder way before she ever took any meds for it to valid.

Unfortunately, many psychiatrists do sadly diagnose people based on manic reactions to antidepressants without taking a med history and thus essentially sentencing someone to a lifetime of very powerful drugs that they shouldn't be on.

I feel very bad for your friend that she may have this diagnosis on her medical records when it is questionable as to whether it is valid or not.

49er

A lot of these stories of mental illness are sad indeed. I can't help but think that SMI, like cancer, and most other degenerative health conditions are triggered and/or caused by environmental factors. I realize that some pharmaceutical drugs are beneficial but also feel that drugs should be of last resort and the side effects should not be worse than the condition they are meant to treat.

Thanks for everyone's input.

Im more inclined to use serotonin meds, and meds that act as histamines against excitotoxins.

Google Dr. Cheney's research on fibromyalgia. I followed that myself and Im currently on doxepine and klonapin as needed with magnesium and D3.

Also avoid MSG and aspartame like its poison, which it is. NO soft drinks with it, eliminate caffeine if possible, eliminate alcohol.

Excitotoxic chemicals are in just about EVERYTHING processed, and if you eat at KFC youre getting a megadose of death in one meal.

DreamStalker wrote:A lot of these stories of mental illness are sad indeed.

This syndrome was known as manic-depressive disorder about twenty years ago. It was then as it is now pretty much a "garbage-can" diagnosis like schizophrenia was before that, used when clinicians did not know what else to call it. That is not to say that there are no actual cases out there but they are few and far between.

pax

Roger

Seems to me from my experience with those diagnosed bipolar that a lot of people end up getting classed together who have very different symptoms, behaviors, and problems. Maybe one day this large classification will get separated out into specific useful designations with specific proved approaches. That day may be far off, even if some progress is being made. Until then, unfortunately, the approach seems to be just to medicate them all and then let life sort them out.

The best-fitting model separated patients with bipolar disorder into large classes of episodic bipolar (47%) and depressive type (32%), moderately sized classes characterized by prolonged hypomanias (10%) and mixed episodes (5%) and five small classes with unusual course characteristics including mania-to-depression and depression-to-mania transitions and chronic mixed affective symptoms. This empirical typology is relatively independent of the distinction between bipolar disorder type I and type II. -- http://journals.cambridge.org/action/di ... id=8642499

I despise the term "MENTAL DISORDER". It implies that the patient is some kind of unbalanced nut.

In actuality, MOST problems are caused PHYSCIOLOGICALLY. This means they occur in the body but present as impaired cognitive functions. That is NOT a mental problem. Its something ocurring in the body.

Depression is another example. If serotonin levels drop significantly in the wake of stress, then it can become a dangerous condition. Serotonin is produced in the gut (small intestine), not in the brain.

Thus, you can suffer physiological cognitive impairment because you simply have a leaky gut or an immune disorder.

Also, while meds have their place, beware of doctors prescribing meds for "conditions" they've diagnosed. Ritalyn is a good example. We had a whole generation of normal boys who had trouble sitting still drugged out.

Follow the money trail in the pharmaceutical lobbies. That alone will scare you sufficiently.

Quick reply: I was misdiagnosed for ten years. A new doctor finally looked at what was going on and started me on mood stabilizers. It was like being given a whole new life. The change in my quality of life after mood stabilizers was even more dramatic than the change that occurred with cpap.

I had a decade without mood stabilizers and a decade with them. I'm keeping my pills.

snuginarug wrote:

I had a decade without mood stabilizers and a decade with them.

Which drugs are considered mood stabilizers?

I am glad to hear you found some help.

ChicagoGranny wrote:

snuginarug wrote:

I had a decade without mood stabilizers and a decade with them.

Which drugs are considered mood stabilizers?

http://www.psycheducation.org/depressio ... lizers.htm

I found this forum because I recently had a sleep study and now waiting for the appt with the dr. to confirm that I need a CPAP machine. The day of the study the tech told me something about me having 62 episodes, whatever that means. Than she put me on the machine and came in later and adjusted it. I didn't have a problem with the nasal thingyie...whatever they are called. Anyways I am excited about seeing the dr. on 8/6.

Now about the above subject. Ever since I was 20 (I am now 62) I had yearly episodes of depression and manic episodes. But I was not fully aware of what was going on.I would go to the dr. when depressed and he would prescribe anti-depressants. Worked for a while. Then when I was manic or anxious I would go see him and he would prescribe tranquilizers. Worked for awhile. This went on and off for over 15-20 years. I was "officially" DX in 1991. At that time they tried different meds and I walked around like a zombie for a while during the time we figured out which combination of medications to take. I was seeing a therapist. But I was still in denial,, not taking my meds faithfully. Then in 1995 I decided that I would really commit. I take my pills regularly: depakote, zoloft and ambien. Zanax once in a while. Use to take geodon but have been able to get off of it. I see my therapist every week and my psychiatrist every three months. I still have episodes but they are mild and I can usually control them or at least be aware of them. If I get under stress it really triggers an episode.

I am also a diabetic, hypertension, hypothyroid and now probably with sleep apnea. Sometimes I think when does it all get better.

NeNeen wrote:

I am also a diabetic, hypertension, hypothyroid and now probably with sleep apnea. Sometimes I think when does it all get better.

When? Probably at "CPAP time".

If your AHI is 62 you probably should have been using CPAP 40 years ago. (I don't believe it was invented yet.) You might have avoided diabetes, thyroid problems, hypertension and mental illness.

Get on CPAP and a lot of things should improve for you.

Best of luck!

DreamStalker wrote:

ChicagoGranny wrote:

snuginarug wrote:

I had a decade without mood stabilizers and a decade with them.

Which drugs are considered mood stabilizers?

http://www.psycheducation.org/depressio ... lizers.htm

Thanks.

Interesting that they list fish oil. Maybe a pretty safe treatment to try first?

DavidCarolina wrote:I think kTeague is right on the money, as usual i might add. ...
Having said that, im a BIG believer in meds IF they treat something specific. I use clonapin, and ive recently learned that far from being "addictive" the leading pioneer in fibromyalgia maintains that it simply is a miracle drug that for some stops excitotoxins from destroying brain neurons much like preventing a seizure.

Whether one is a pioneer or not, to call Klonopin non-addictive is irresponsible at least. Klonopin is the most powerful benzodiazepine. I wouldn't even consider the stuff for more than a few days or a couple weeks in some extreme circumstance. Alternately, intermittently such as 1-2/week.

I think benzos. are some of the most useful and wonderful drugs created by the inventiveness of people, no matter what motivated them. But they are downright dangerous if misused--which basically means using them continuously long-term.

Please read about Benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiaze ... l_syndrome

Benzo. withdrawal is one of the few withdrawal syndromes which have a substantial risk of being fatal, with alcohol and barbiturates being the prominent others.

Then watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDbPnAQ-c1o

Truly terrifying.

ChicagoGranny wrote:When? Probably at "CPAP time".

If your AHI is 62 you probably should have been using CPAP 40 years ago. (I don't believe it was invented yet.) You might have avoided diabetes, thyroid problems, hypertension and mental illness.

Get on CPAP and a lot of things should improve for you.

Best of luck!

My dr called today and said they got the sleep study results and to confirm my 8/6 appt. I asked if I could get an earlier appt. I am now going in this coming Mon. I called the lab and they offered to email me a copy of the report. I got it and I have posted some of it on Sleep Study Results.