Posted by mellow on April 8, 2011, at 14:23:06
In reply to To the depths of despair with Risperdal-SI trigger, posted by hyperfocus on April 6, 2011, at 22:47:31
My mania generally manifest itself in those type of thought behaviors or extreme thought blocking. I might try meditating or listening to music and two minutes later I'm thinking again about the suicidal thoughts or how I'm gonna end up in the psych ward again and lose my job, and lose my benefits, and my family will be worn out with me, and then I'll never be stable again....you see where I'm going. You described it so well with how you can't even watch a 5 minute youtube video. That is EXACTLY how I get.
Sometimes I believe I could be diagnosed with ADHD during these periods and its so frustrating I sometimes start crying and freaking out. I can't get anything done and I can't even sit down and relaxed b/c my head is moving so fast. One day I tried to drive to the gym and it took me thirty minutes because I kept getting so lost in my thoughts I was missing exits on the highway over and over.
To get to my point...my doctor and I have standing orders that my risperdal can go as high as 2 mg when this happens. Generally after about three weeks to a month of my body metabolizing that much antipsychotic I feel great. I just went through one of these episodes six weeks ago and I went from 0.5 mgs to 2 mgs. I feel great now and was even too scared to go back down when my doc suggested it yesterday. I combating weigh gain and sluggishness with a vegetarian diet, yoga and intense cardiovascular exercise.
They say antipsychotics can cause grey matter brain tissue loss...but they also say intense exercise can increase your brain volume so I think its worth it to try like 1-2mgs for like a month at night maybe with some magnesium citrate to get great sleep and get you stable. Your thoughts will calm down in my experience. Don't psych yourself out you are stronger than you think. The worst thing you can do is tinker too much. Historically I have watched people on babble tinker and tinker and fall to pieces. Pick a dose level and and stick with it for 4-6 weeks. You will find some clarity. Let the good days stack up one by one.
I wish you well!
mellow
Bipolar II
Lamictal 100, Topamax 50, Risperdal 0.5, Cal/Mag with D3, Fish Oil, High Potency Multi"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
poster:mellow
thread:982139
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110406/msgs/982262.html