Sitting here at the beginning of a new year, I just realized I have no goals. Yes, there are the tiny ones on finish this quilt or that quilt. But I have no life goals. And I am struggling with the idea of creating goals. Do you have these same issues?

i moved to tomball a few months ago and i don't have a psychiatrist here yet. i am in crisis and trying to find a hospital to go to but i can't seem to find any that offer mental health services.

can anyone recommend a hospital where someone in crisis can go to receive inpatient mental health services near tomball texas?

thank you.

Any of you guys taken metformin to help lose weight while on bipolar medication? I take lithium and have gained over 2 stone. Does anyone think this may help? I'm currently taking 1000mg Metformin but have only been doing so for a week, so I haven't noticed any effect yet.


Thanks!

Hello all!

I'm new here, so let me introduce myself briefly before I get to my question. My name is Brittany, I'm 27, and I've been diagnosed as bipolar NOS, basically because my mania isn't strong enough to qualify as bipolar I, but I have mixed episodes which precludes a diagnosis of bipolar II. Fun stuff.

I had a recheck the other day with my psychiatrist and she swapped out Abilify (which I was taking as an adjunct to Lamictal) for Saphris. So far I've had a very pleasant and very deep night's sleep after the first dose last night, but actually taking it was a horrendously unpleasant experience. The aftertaste is almost unbearable and it makes my tongue feel burnt for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before it goes away. I really just was curious to know whether anyone else had any experience with it. I'm hoping actually taking it will get less unpleasant, but it would be nice to know if I can at least look forward to the medication working well as a pay off for the grossness of it.

Thanks in advance!

Anyone else have experience switching between the brand name and the generic? I know the manufacturers claim they do the exact same thing, but i'm not entirely sure i believe it.

I do know that, while remaining basically stable and comparatively well-adjusted -- i became a lot more emotionally labile around the time i switched from brand name to generic. I used to be person who made people worry when i cracked a smile ("when he's happy, he looks insane," to quote a song popular when i was in high school), who was so quiet i could silence a room simply by speaking loudly enough to be heard.

Not so much, this past year or so. For the first time in a decade, i have, all at the same time, a job that is rewarding and also pays enough to live on, a pleasant home, a healthy romantic relationship, and the ability and means to keep myself and my dog fed without resorting to Dumpsters or food pantries. And yet i teared up when Obama was elected, cried right through the inauguration. When i came home from a road trip, and saw my dog and my boyfriend for the first time in five days, the tear factory started right up. I get righteously pissed about reasonable things, tell off the person i'm pissed at, and thus work right on through it: i get to let go of the rage when it's no longer useful. And i laugh (mostly without becoming hysterical) at most of the things things that don't make me yell or cry, and many of the things that do. Because if i can't find humor in myself, than what the hell good is there in anything?

And i like it this way. I'm pretty into having intense emotions that have to do with real things, not with being bugfuck insane. It's like that moment in the _Wizard of Oz_ where Dorthy goes from Kansas to Oz and the film goes from black and white to technicolor. Now, it's entirely possible that this is because i have my life more and more together, and that this makes it safe to have, acknowledge, and outwardly express emotions. Still, i find it awfully suspicious that all this started around the time my pills started looking different.

Point being, i've finally managed to successfully apply to the GSK charity drug program (and don't get me started on programs intended to help crazy people but are damn near impossible to navigate without professional help) i'm about to go back on brand name Lamictal. And i'm worried that the world will suddenly go back to black and white, only this time, i'll know it doesn't have to be that way.

My husband and I were recently in Amsterdam, and we went to the Marijuana and Hash Museum there.  I've shared in posts before that my husband has rapid-cycling bipolar II and was resistant to every medication he tried.  However, he's been stable for the most part with only a few minor dips ever since he started smoking a small amount of marijuana every day starting around July of 2008.  I've searched all over the Internet trying to find other cases where MJ has been successful for people with bipolar or depression, and the type of case that I see most frequently is bipolar II, rapid cycling, medication resistant.  I saw yet another case at the museum in Amsterdam, on a poster from the organization Americans for Medical Relief.  Check it out:

( PhotosCollapse )

I think it's safe to say that there is something very different about the brains of rapid-cycling bipolar II's that is somehow very responsive to THC when nothing else seems to work (or produces the opposite effect of what it's supposed to produce).  And I think another important point to share is that MJ has the opposite effect on me; makes me quite anxious and paranoid.  In addition, alcohol makes me happy and goofy whereas my husband becomes irritable and depressed if he drinks just one beer.  Simple proof that no two brains are alike and that the same substance can have very drastic effects on two different people.  Those who are anti-medical marijuana cannot blanket the "typical" effects of marijuana over everyone!

What makes you happy?

Lately, when I am down about anything my husband asks, "what makes you happy?" I have been very hard pressed to answer him. I feel a big depression coming on. Not the slit my wrists kind of active depression. More like the curl up in a ball on the couch and do nothing for 48 or so hours. Cry maybe. While there the world could end & I wouldn't care

So, I am posing the question to this group. What makes you happy?

Gawd, how i hate the seasons. Super emotional time of year for me. Growing up with split parents every season was 1/2 here 1/2 there. Now as an adult I still try to spend parts here & there. It sucks when you give massively & receive a moderate thanks. Or no response at all. And there is still the part that wants to receive stuffs too. Suckage. I usually spend hours on each present. Making or hunting for. Ugh.

How does the holidays effect you?

Had a panic attack the other night, dont know whats wrong with me...i stopped taking my lamictal im on and off it all the time...more just that i forget to take it than any other reason.  I've been so confused.  after being in out of treatments since 17 years old i've recently had any use completely under control which has just made me even more confused and completely resentful at all the programs that told me i was an addict and their way is the only way.  I have my sober friends and then unsober friends and ive been withholding truth from the sober ones, whove pretty much abandoned me anyway.  I think my roommate is stealing my stuff. my newish best friend who i went to my last treatment with is spinning out of control, im in a weird guy situation, ive been anxious as hell and i cant be prescribed meds that i need because my parents told my psych im an "addict." ive deff been cycling with my ups and downs more rapidly and am down right now, far.  its been hard for me to leave my house.  im so confused.  Because of all the therapeutic communites ive been in since 17 and therapy every week when not in them and outpatients and all that, i usually have great self awareness and can usually really explain whats going on with me etc...latey tho i just can't i dont understand im confused, scared, anxious, angry.  Also i took the job im doing now as smething i thought would put my foot in the door for a career in working with live music.  I'm working in the venues around nyc as security, but there isn't really potential to move up from here.  i hope to soon get an internship with bowery presents or live nation...at my job now because im a girl they always put me in the sucky spots, i dont get to even see the shows most of the time which is why i wanted the job.  i dunno, i feel like im going crazy, i feel not close with anyone.  

One wonders how many Bipolars wander into BDSM for one reason or another.  One also wonders about the statistics of ex-Mormons (and similar escaped religious zealots) and mood disorders.  Anyone know where to find that sort of information?  My Google-Fu fails me.