Posted by antennastoheaven on June 24, 2013, at 19:22:39
In reply to Re: Bipolar DX based only on SSRI hypomanic response?, posted by polarbear206 on June 24, 2013, at 18:23:01
> Perhaps you could tolerate and get a good response from an AD if you took it in conjunction with a mood stabilizer. Wellbutrin is a poor AD. I wouldn't obsess about being Bipolar or not. I will tell you that you don't have to to
> have hypomania with bipolar. It can present as anxiety, agitation, irritability. There is a broad spectrum to affective disorders. Keep in mind.
>
> The bread won't rise without the yeast.I think Wellbutrin is a great antidepressant for those with certain symptoms. It certainly works for dealing with my motivation issues. For me, there are no bothersome side effects, and I can stop Wellbutrin at any time. The first few days off it are rather low, if only because I was feeling so well before.
I am thinking about mood stabilizers in conjunction with other antidepressants, and I think it's risky. It makes me think of speedballing (mixing stimulants and depressants, most commonly cocaine with heroin). Of course combining a mood stabilizer and antidepressant is not nearly as dangerous, but there are still questions of balance. Not to mention I'd be taking TWO drugs with their own set of side effects, and both would most likely have noticeable side effects. The fact that both anticonvulsants and SSRIs tend to be cognitively impairing is a huge problem; a combination of both could make me feel good yet not manic, but unable to actually get any hard work done.
I care about having a bipolar diagnosis because the diagnostic label makes a difference as to how you are treated. Being prematurely diagnosed and treated as bipolar has caused significant impairment in my life; I probably wouldn't have been prescribed the mood stabilizers without this diagnosis. Lithium made me unproductive and physically miserable for the few weeks while I was on it. Lamictal made me feel so depressed that I wanted to kill myself, thus making me miserable for a month. And I had to figure out that it was the drug making me feel this way all on my own; the pdoc's next idea was to INCREASE the dose. I felt better shortly after backing down on the dose. These drugs made me miss at least a few weeks of work, skip out on fun experiences, and generally caused two rather bad months of my life. One psychiatrist didn't want to give me one treatment because ishe was afraid it may cause mania (nevermind that only SSRI/SNRIs have caused mania and the drug considered was dopaminergic).
poster:antennastoheaven
thread:1045773
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130617/msgs/1045818.html