Bipolar Depression?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shinobu
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Shinobu

Guest
My Sister was diagnosed with Bipolar Depression a few days ago. I did a search online and read up a bit about it, but I feel the only way I can really understand is to get personal experiances from others. If you could please share your experiance with it, if you have it, I would greatly appreciate your kindness. I have panic disorder and now my Sister is diagnosed with this, gosh it makes me so scared.

Thank you
 
I would very much recommend this site for you to learn. It also has a very good forum and a chat room.

For some reason I can’t seem to cut and paste but here’s the main site www.bpkids.org

There are a bunch of good sites if you’ll google them. This one has the best forum in my opinion.

Bipolar in kids is the main focus of this site, it’s geared for parents. The information is relevant to adults too. Many of the parents also have similar diagnoses.

Treatment is the main thing. It is treatable and it sometimes takes a while to get a medication regimen “tweaked”.

Hope this helps. God Bless, Paula
 
Shonobu,

Don’t be scared. With the proper dosages your sister can be in pretty good shape. I have a friend who has Bi-polar disorder (used to be called Manic-Depressive) and as long as she is taking her medicine she does well. She used to take lithium but she is now on something else (sorry, don’t remember what it is).

I can usually tell though, when she has forgotten her medicine - I will not leave her house to go shopping together if she is acting either manic or depressed and I find out she hasn’t taken her medicine - I make her go get it if she hasn’t, then she is soooo much better.

If you take something for your panic disorder and it makes you feel better then think of it as being what works for your sister too.

I am hoping that someone who actually has Bi-Polar disorder will respond to your post as well because they will be able to help you more.

Brenda V.
 
I have suffered for 16 years with depression and 10 years with anxiety, the best thing is to find a doctor you can trust and talk to openly, second a therapist you can trust and talk to openly, third, just be there for the person, listen, don’t judge, research, ask if they just need to vent, talk, etc. understand them the best you can. Go to your local library and get some books.

The most important is getting properly diagnosed, getting help from and doc and therapist, they know the best treatment to follow.
 
Shinobu,

I was hospitalized in January 2003 while experiencing classic symptoms of mania (rapid speech, not sleeping, inability to concentrate, etc.) and was diagnosed as bipolar. While I tend more towards the manic side of things, I have also dealt quite a bit with depression. Please don’t be scared! With proper therapy (medicine AND counseling) the majority of bipolar patients can live healthy, productive lives. The counseling that I received, both personal and in group sessions, was a big help in getting things “straightened out” for me. Also, I’m a big believer in cognitive therapy - learning how to control your emotions through mental exercises such as visualization or relaxation techniques. One thing to keep in mind with the meds is that an antidepressant can cause the patient to swing into a manic state. It often takes a few months for the doctor to determine the proper dosages and types of medications for a particular patient. People tend to respond to different treatments in different ways, and it is important to achieve a balance in order to avoid mood swings.

Even though I take medicine every day, I feel much better than before I went to the hospital. My faith has grown exponentially as a result of this experience, and I went from not dating at all to getting engaged a few weeks ago! When it comes down to it, it’s no different than a diabetic that has to take insulin every day. Part of my body is not working as it should be, and I’m doing something slightly out of the ordinary to counteract that.

Let me know if I can help with any specifics about my experience or to answer any questions. I’ll be praying for you and your sister.
-gtrplr
 
Dear Shinobu,
If you have the time and money, buy the book “An Unquiet Mind” by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison. Dr. Jamison is a very intelligent woman who suffers from bipolar disorder. I read that book shortly after I was diagnosed in late 2002 and it helped me understand what bipolar disorder means and what it’s like for other people who suffer from it.

I second those who say don’t worry. Worry helps nobody. Pray for your sister and her doctor and repeat this to yourself a few times daily: “Jesus, I trust in You!”

manicmoment.org/ is a great website. The owner has a free email list you can subscribe to for supporters of those who have bipolar disorder. The owner has bipolar.

This mood diary might help your sister: psychiatry24x7.com/mooddiary/detail.jhtml?key=mooddiary

God bless you!

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
 
I am a disability nurse case manager. I have had 2 files come across my desk in the past 2 weeks of patients put on symbyax. This medication is specifically for bipolar depression.

They have a website www.symbyax.com
 
If your sister is taking an antidepressant, please make sure that she doesn’t abuse alcohol. I’m pretty sure that alcohol + antidepressant = manic episode.

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
 
I cannot recall the medication they put my Sister on. I can sympathize with the starting of medication though, I remember my anxiety inceased majorly when I first started Zoloft. One of you mentioned the rapid speech, (there was a time where I wondered if my Sister was bipolar, but then figured it was just her age) I recall many times where she would talk so fast and I had no clue what she was saying. Also one time she was playing the Sims game and she was clicking things so quickly and then she would have days where she would just lie in the bed all day as if she was depraved of energy (In other words she had periods of extreme highs and lows). I had a feeling something was wrong, I should have realized it beforehand.

I also wonder if that is part of the reason why she had been so close to her boyfriend. I had to keep a close eye on them many times. All this time I had been upset with her and here it may have been something that she was completely unaware of.

Thank you very much for your replies. I’ll keep you guys in my prayers as well.

Edit: Also she is of high school age, too young for alcohol, but I will make sure to keep an eye on her regardless.
 
From what you said about her, she sounds bipolar but I’m warning you anyway: bipolar disorder is overdiagnosed these days. It’s confused with ADD (or maybe it’s ADHD) and at least one other disorder.

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
 
I have bipolar disorder. I’m currently on Depakote (a mood stabilizer) and wellbutrin (anti-depressant). If you really want, PM me and I’ll send you my full story - I had a really rough road for a while, and I wrote it when things got better for me. But, a few things that might help you to understand:

Bipolar implies two opposites - mania and depression. Depression is similar to what we all think of as depression. Mania can seem either good or bad. When it seems good, you feel euphoric, nothing can go wrong. During that time, many decisions in regards to money, sex and other various lifestyle subjects are often made with disasterous results. The mania that feels bad usually consists of racing thoughts that a person cannot control, along with energy that you cannot channel. Racing thoughts mean not only that your thoughts are going a thousand miles an hour, but often you have 3 or 4 “trains of thought” going simultaneously. During either type of mania, some people can become psychotic - seeing things, paranoia, etc. It’s a very scary thing.

These phases can last anywhere from weeks to years between phases. During my worst time, I went through “rapid cycling” which felt like I was up and down on as often as several times a day. I think that it was, in actuality, that I was experiencing both at the same time, or that I was experiencing psychosis. I was unable to get help because of lack of insurance, though. The inability to get help after having gone to the hospital requesting it for suicidal thoughts, combined with really bad events, led to a suicide attempt that has changed my life. I’ve been medicated steadily ever since (except once, due to lack of insurance, but briefly and with someone close to me helping keep an eye on me).

Today, I can tell if I’ve forgotten my medication. Recently, I forgot it two days in a row before I remembered. I was with a friend and a stressful situation came up. I began to yell at my kids, I was stressing that they’d get run over in the busy parking lot, but I was on the phone trying to get help to unlock the car. I thought I was out of control. But, my friend remarked that 2 years ago, he had seen me out of control. This wasn’t it. And a couple of months ago, my therapist told me that I’d been stable long enough, and through events that could have caused me to fall, that he thought it would be unethical for him to continue seeing me. My point here, is that, while bipolar disorder is extremely serious, and can be very scary to the person suffering from it, and their loved ones, it is also something that can be treated. And, I believe that it can also be a blessing, when it’s under control.
 
I agree with Cora. Bipolar Disorder is very much overdiagnosed. Not only is it confused with ADD, especially in children and teens, but people with no organic, permanent chemical imbalance can also be misdiagnosed with this illness.

I myself was (most likely) misdiagnosed with the disease in 2002. My father was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder when I was 12 years old. Specifically, we were both diagnosed Bipolar Disorder, Type II, Rapid Cycling. For a short time I was on Depakote, Lithium, and another drug whose name slips my mind, then weaned off again with the approval of my doctor.

Type I is classified by full blown manic episodes, sometimes with psychotic elements. Type II is classified by hypomanic episodes, which is an elevated mood that is not quite so “happy” or stereotypically “crazy” as a manic episode. Type II is actually more lethal than type I. Normal bipolar episodes of mania or depression last weeks, months or even years and can have small periods of normalcy in between. Rapid cycling episodes last two weeks or less and involve very little normalcy in the unmedicated state. (I’d be wary of a diagnosis involving the rapid cycling modifier because it is so very easy for a “normal”, undiseased human brain to fall into a bipolar-like system of cycling between highs and lows.)

What makes me think we were misdiagnosed is that we are both now unmedicated and symptom free. This is an illness that the psychiatric/scientific community regards as life-long, hereditary, and incurable (it can be controlled, it can be treated… but it cannot be cured), so it is impossible for a true bipolar patient simply to “get better” and never have the slightest problem again. I can’t say what accounted for my father’s symptoms originally, but my own were probably due to my atheism and lack of justification for living (plus the stress of all-night cramming for college exams).

I was never psychotic, and even in the worst of my supposed “illness” I functioned normally (went to college, kept friends, had a full-time job, won awards for outstanding teaching, etc.)… nobody knew how I felt, which attests to how relatively mild my symptoms were. When I started believing in God again my symptoms rapidly decreased and when I became Catholic my symptoms entirely vanished (go Jesus!).

How the disease works is quite simple. Many “normal” people have felt bipolar-like mood swings, because of the way our human brains work. Have you ever stayed up WAY too late and gotten that “second wind” burst of energy? That’s sort of like a tiny hypomanic episode… you’re energetic, talkative, happy, fast-thinking, and suddenly don’t feel you really require very much sleep after all. You’ve got all these happy nature-made chemicals in your brain. However, a few hours later, your brain will try to compensate for that rush of happy chemicals. You brain may over-compensate in fact! You’re cranky, and you just want to fall into bed. You might be a bit lethargic and under-the-weather the next day. Your brain ideally regains its normal balance and you go about your business, but a bipolar individual’s brain has a lot more difficulty fighting for that chemical/neurotransmitter equilibrium that comes quite naturally to you. It should be noted that severe sleep deprivation can cause psychotic and/or bipolar symptoms in the most “normal” of individuals.

Bipolar people may always be cycling from one extreme to the other, and their extremes are far more elated or miserable than yours are. Their mood could be compared to a sine curve (remember trig class?). Medications can temper the height of that curve but probably won’t make the wave go away. A medicated bipolar usually can still feel the subtle, involuntary cycling of his mood, but ideally the medications make him the boss of his actions again.

(continued…)
 
(part II…)

People who have symptoms of Bipolar Disorder should be taken seriously, because they can be in grave danger. Studies have found that between 15 to 20 percent of people who are diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder end up committing suicide. Most psychiatric professionals believe that Bipolar patients should be on lithium for life, because the suicide rate for those on lithium is much lower. ALL people with Bipolar Disorder or bipolar-like symptoms should be taken very seriously. Even people who seem like they are functioning well may be suicidal.

Most people diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, especially with mild symptoms, have much higher than average IQ scores or are even intellectual geniuses. When smart people who don’t believe in God get to thinking too hard about why they bother breathing (much less suffering), they understandably may conclude it isn’t worthwhile and become very depressed.

There is a very thick book called Existential Psychotherapy by a man named Irvin D. Yalom, which quotes the suicide note of a Bipolar patient:

"Imagine a happy group of morons who are engaged in work.

They are carrying bricks in an open field.
As soon as they have stacked all the bricks at one end of the field,
they proceed to transport them to the opposite end.
This continues without stop and every day of every year
they are busy doing the same thing.

"One day one of the morons stops long enough
to ask himself what he is doing.
He wonders what purpose there is in carrying the bricks.
And from that instant on he is not quite as content
with his occupation as he had been before.

“I am the moron who wonders why he is carrying the bricks.”

That, unfortunately, can be what life looks like sometimes to a person diagnosed with Depression or Bipolar Disorder.

The most helpful thing you can do for somebody suffering from this illness is pray for her. Pray for your sister often. Be patient and sympathetic with her, but try not coddle her unless it’s obvious she needs to be handled with care for a while … her illness may be an explanation for odd behavior or unpleasant feelings, but it should never be an excuse. She can probably learn to manage her symptoms (with medication) and lead a perfectly productive, responsible life.

Feel free to PM me. Your family will be in my prayers!
 
Here is a link where you can read what the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV) has to say about Bipolar types 1 and 2: mental-health-today.com/bp/dsm.htm

Bipolar, from my understanding as a lowly psyc student, is requires alternating episodes of mania and depression. It’s also genetic, so often times a pschiatrist will want to know whether anyone in your family has been diagnosed bipolar. Treatment is almost always effective, providing the medication is taken correctly.

Hope this helps.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top