Posted by MM on August 3, 2001, at 2:40:30
In reply to Re: It is the Effexor or just me?, posted by stjames on August 3, 2001, at 1:07:24
Hey Jady. Hmm, I was NEVER what I think is hypomanic or manic from AD's, but I was irritable, panicky, agitated etc. and now I'm diagnosed BPII. It's an accepted dx because they think that you must have had underlying BP if AD's bring this out (don't ask me why). I tried many of them so that may be different than your case (if none of them work, she must be BP??). I don't know how COMMON it is to be dxd BP because of irritability (I would agree with Else that it could be frustration due to a sucky life), but I was, so maybe it's the new thinking, or maybe BP is a popular dx right now.
I've been off of AD's for about a year, and I'd say things have gotten a bit better, but... I sometimes wonder if they changed my brain chemistry for good (or I could really just be BP).
It's cloudy in your case. Anger and irritability don't seem to me to be definite markers of BP (but again that's why I was dxd). You could try a mood stabilizer (BTW depakote isn't the only one, even if it's the only one the pdoc likes) just to see if it helps right? (That's sort of what I'm doing. I'm trying neurontin since it seems to be a mild one.)
You might want to read more about bipolar and see if it sounds like you, and also about BP meds. If the anger and irritability are things you can't/don't want to live with, then you want to figure out why you're feeling that way and try to "fix" it right (whether that's through meds or therapy or w/e)? If you are doing well (and your husband or someone else thinks so too (because SOMETIMES BP's think everything's great when it's not)) then there's no point in switching meds if you don't want to IMO. Sorry this is so long, but I hope it helped.
poster:MM
thread:73204
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010731/msgs/73270.html