Posted by King Vultan on December 30, 2004, at 8:33:21
In reply to Dysthymia versus Bipolar type 2, posted by Mr.Scott on December 30, 2004, at 3:16:02
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> Am I a blind fool for not being able to tell which one of these I have?
>
> I would have to say I have a chronic depressive/chronic anxiety condition with occassional Major Depressions. I also have lots of anger issues. My father is a lifelong dysthmic. My doc however says I have bipolar 2. Mood stabilizers offer me no noticeable benefit that I can see. When I take antidepressants I can experience an initial hypomania. But since the ssri's help me so much with my anxiety, I can't tell if they actually worsen my depression by increasing my cycling or if I just am totally upset that they work for my anxiety except that they cause me a number of very unpleasant side effects. I can basically be talked into having any depressive/anxiety/bipolar disorder at this point.
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> The reason I posed my initial question is because I am stuck between whether or not I should pursue antidepressants or anticonvulsants.
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> A part of me wants to say to hell with it all and go back to using alcohol and drugs even if it kills me!
>
> ScottExcessive anger can be a bipolar trait, but I've known lots of people with bad tempers who weren't bipolar. The same is true of heavy drinkers, but I've known hardly any real drug users, apart from those who use marijuana, who I think are so common that they hardly qualify. I've also experienced an extreme lift when first starting on an SSRI-type drug, but only for a few days, and not in many years now. Since I've only had a handful of days in the last twenty years that I could describe as "great", it would seem that I have no real tendency towards hypomania. Those few great days I've had probably wouldn't even qualify for hypomania, but it's been so long that I've long since forgotten what they even felt like. Things are steadily improving for me, however.
I'm no expert and no psychiatrist, but it does seem to me that the BPII diagnosis may be being overused, and that some people get stuck on bipolar-type drugs that aren't necessarily that helpful. If it were me, I would try to look at the criteria for a hypomanic episode and objectively try to determine if I qualify. Also, I'm wondering what are some of the adverse effects you've noticed on SSRIs?
Todd
poster:King Vultan
thread:435630
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041228/msgs/435661.html