Posted by morgan miller on July 30, 2010, at 1:39:23
In reply to Re: Racing/Anxiety Thoughts, Need Opinion » violette, posted by cycling on July 30, 2010, at 0:26:28
> Thanks for all the help guys. So I have my pdoc appointment on next monday. Quite frankly, I want to get off all of these hard drugs. It's ridiculous. I have anxiety, not bipolar. I'm hoping we'll wean me off of seroquel, lithium, and lamictal (which we are already doing) and maybe put me on zyprexa and a low dose of some ssri (i heard prozac gives good results with zyprexa). Bottom line- I'm not bipolar. Anybody have a medication reccomendations? Or any thoughts about not taking medication at all? I'm also open to that. I'm going to start seeing a psychologist and have a therapist on hte side that will be helping me with the OCD thoughts. My hope is that with all of these tools I'll learn I'll nip OCD right in hte a$$ and be down with this for good. Time to moooveeee on
How do you know for sure that you are not bipolar?
My old therapist who has a Phd. in clinical psychology and did forensic work for the Fairfax, Co Police Dept. just outside of Washington D.C., thought I simply had bad anxiety and ocd. Two and a half years ago I got off Zoloft and the perfect storm of events and circumstances sent me into a major mixed manic episode landing me in the hospital after 4 weeks of pure hell. Even in the hospital she questioned the BP dx but now she realizes she was wrong.
Do you only have racing obsessive thoughts?
Do you experience insomnia?
Have you ever had periods of being very impulsive?
Are you ever abnormally hyperactive or energetic?
Have you ever found yourself engaging in risky behavior(lots of unprotected sex) on a regular basis that others around you would avoid?
Sorry, I'm just someone who never thought they were bipolar and I fought the diagnosis for 3 days in the hospital and finally broke down and started Depakote and then Zyprexa.
You very well may not be bipolar. I would just keep an open mind. Do you think you resist the possibility of it because of the stigma and the kinds of medications that are used to treat it? Or maybe you just know you don't have BPD because you simply have never exhibited most of the behaviors or experienced most of the symptoms.
Symbyax, the combination of Prozac and Zyprexa is a great drug and may be awesome for treating your symptoms. Eventually you could split the two and ween off Zyprexa once you are doing well and feel stable and fully functional once again. I personally prefer Zoloft over any SSRI for several reasons, but Prozac definitely has been shown to be effective for OCD.
You may want to also consider a low dose of lithium, you don't need to reach toxic therapeutic levels for lithium to be effective. Lithium can be neuroprotective, promote neurogenesis, increase neuronal plasticity, act as an antiviral agent, and increase grey matter.
Depakote isn't the evil drug many make it out to be. If you used it you would be able to ween off it completely or lower the dose eventually. Interestingly, Depakote can increase the production of progenitor stem cells. I just like finding positives in these medications we find ourselves having to take.
Whatever you do, Good luck!!!
Morgan
poster:morgan miller
thread:956333
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100720/msgs/956414.html