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Mental Health Question for those diagnosed with Bipolar disorder (manic-depression)

F

Fluxit

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Joined
Aug 28, 2016
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I am very curious to find out other people's opinion to compare mine to. When replying please include your full diagnosis and comorbid conditions, plus your prefered drugs, if you feel like it include medications for your psychiatric condition since many drugs can interfere in a positive way. These will play into my personal research. I will provide mine as an example, i want to see if there is a pattern in bipolar individuals and their drug preferences, plus how these drugs might affect us differently than a normal individual. I will provide mine as an example:

Diagnosis: Bipolar disorder type I with psychotic features.
Comorbid conditions: Generalized anxiety disorder and substance abuse history.

Medications for psychiatric disorders:
Lithium 1,200mg
Celexa 20mg
Rameron 7.5mg
Ambien 10mg
Clonazepam 1mg 1-2 times daily
Adderall 20mg once a day as i usually don't need a second dose.

Drugs of choice: meth, occasional adderall beyond usual dose. But i have a history of pretty much everything from tylenol 3's, percocet, DXM, coke, benzos at recreational doses, up to even DPH for psychonaut endevours, tje list is to extensive to post.

I honestly seem to be keen on stimulants more than depressants, they seem to give me a much stronger high than other i have seen, usually what most consider a small ammount of meth woukd have me going for 2 days onto possibly 3 without redosing. Depressants are ok but i have the high opiates give and reserve it for a rare occasion, the only downers i enjoy are benzos with moderate alcohol (do not recommend!) i notice a good adderall or meth high is similar slightly to my mania but milder, i tend to be more depressive than manic but when i am manic it usually lands me in the hospital. I am careful with overdoing it due to my psychotic history which even weed surprisingly can, on occasion set off. Actually last night i took about 50mg of adderall at around 12am, redosed 30mg at 6am then stopped and am still tweaked out at 9:03pm. Surprisingly never have had issues stopping my use of any drugs even after 3 years smoking cigs heavily i put them down a year ago no problem, used meth IV and quit using the stuff for a good while before turning to regular amphetamine.

Anyone use stimmulants and notice the high is similar to hypomania or mania? I keep up with my lithium to avoid triggering actual mania. Downers just never caught on for me since i am usually to down as it is.

I know this was long sorry, but i think this could be very informative, plus i am tweaked and it came to mind so i had to post. Looking forwaed to your responses.
 
I haven't used stimulants in years but your story reminds me so much of my sister. She's bipolar and last I heard she was prescribed Seroquel, Depakote and Prozac. Her drug of choice is cocaine either injected or smoked. She would get manic episodes where she would become extremely violent and wound up in jail more times than I can remember. I'm going to move this to Mental Health and you may get more responses. Take care.
 
Hey, fellow bipolar/medical profesional/recovered user here. The stims tend to be the DoC for us IME. Not sure why, maybe because it does induce a siulated hypomania and that's when we feel best. The depression side of things has always been the killer for me. Never had full blown mania but hypomania for sure but the depression was unbearable. You seem to have a lot of experience in recreational use so one thing I will say is that the only drug that's ever been effective in acutely treating bipolar depression is ketamine. They are doing studies and I'm certain it's being prescribed off-label for this purpose already as the results pour in. I know it doesn't really answer your questions but more of a tip. If you find yourself in a bipolar depressed state a bit of ketamine will snap you out of it almost immediately. It's quite remarkable how fast it works, actually. I'm not saying go down the k-hole or anything, a small dose will work but it will reset things long enough for you to get your shit back together, especially if you've been stuck in bed for days or comntemplating self-harm etc. I recommend doing this through an MD, of course but I'll leave that little bit of advice with you just in case things get bad and you are scaring yourself or your friends. I've snapped myself out of a few this way and the research is there to back it up.

Also, I know it's hard but I'd avoid stims if you're BP. It's a slippery slope. I know the joys and productivity/creativity that can be accomplished with both but don't go chasing it. Being level also has it' benefits, albeit does require some lifestyle changes to accomodate being "normal". Your BP symptoms could actually also be caused by the use of stims. Unless you were diagnosed while completely clean and sober your dagnosis is not credible. The DSM criteria for a diagnosis demands that there are no substance abuse issues that could mimic the symptoms. Get yourself clean for a while and see if you still have cycling then request a re-evaluation.

Also noticed you're on Li. Watch your sodium intake as there is a narrow therapeutic index for Li and sodium can effect it causing toxicity or ineffectiveness depending (basically try to keep you Na intake steady). Also Li won't bind to activated charcoal so if you happen to OD on it there's no real way to treat it except to use IV fluids to keep the kidneys going and hope they can keep up. Hope this helps even though it's not really directed at anything you asked in your post. Take care.
 
Are you asking if stimulants trigger mania? Yes, they do. Adderall and Vyvanse triggered mania for bipolar. Vyvanse triggered paranoia which sent me to the hospital. I have never experienced scary paranoia like that in my life. Ritalin makes me alert, it doesn’t trigger mania. Just keeps me awake.

I would love to try Dexedrine next. I would try Adderall if I could. Stimulants make me feel alive and I can get things done. I choose feeling alive instead of taking something that fogs my brain and makes me sleep all day. Stimulants help when I’m scatter-brained.

I’m bipolar 1, major depression, social anxiety disorder, ADHD
 
When i had my first mental breakdown at age 21 i was diagnosed with Bi-polar/ Manic depression than the Psychiatrist said i had Dissociation and dissociative disorder seeing as most of the time i am a happy and friendly person but i can flip out and act terrible hurtful and resentful towards people for brief periods so that explains having a split personality. I have also been told i have PTSD for early childhood trauma and as a result of suffering from DiD disorder and PTSD i tend to repress memorises of events that are perhaps stressful or traumatic in nature as a coping method. You could say i am in denial and use denial of events that have happened to me as a coping mechanism.

As well as having a spilt personality and repressed memories i have a tendencies to feel paranoid and experience psychotic symptoms like seeing things in the shadows of darkness when trying to fall asleep and also can hear voices in my head so i have also been rightly so diagnosed with Schizo-affective disorder that is a mix of Schizophrenia and manic depression.

For the most part thanks to the medication i am prescribed i can cope with the schizo symptoms that are largely stopped thanks to my anti-psychotic meds and the anti-psychotic meds help my thought process dealing with what ever repressed memories may be randomly unlocked and come back to me. I basically spend my life remembering things that come back to me after being locked deep down in my mind or inner psyche.

I can't explain it but If my meds work i function and cope but as you would imagine things eventually get to much to deal with and my medication stops being effective and i require a hospital visit to use Valium and change my medication regime. So far IME the meds i am prescribe are effective for 7 years to keep me good and functioning.

As far as medication i have been prescribed and have used for 7 years respectively

Lithium And Olanazipam first
Followed by respiradol and seroquel for 7 years
Followed by more Seroquel and Amisulpride.

As i said earlier i have used benzo's like diazapam and valium when in hospital.

For recreational substances i too love my stims with Crystal meth being my ultimate drug of choice these days and i am poly-drug user who will snort China White Heroin for the meth come down.

10 years ago i used a lot of ecstasy pills made of speed and Ketamine and i also used to smoke 30 cigarettes a day. Not to mention i went through a 10 year period of being a daily drinker of beer. These days i have quit smoking which really was the best thing i ever did and i now drink beer in moderation but i definitely look forward to my meth smoking sessions that i have every 2 to 3 weeks. Around 16 to 17 years ago i was a heavy marijuana smoker and it very much was my downfall.

It's ironic but i managed to quit smoking, was able to bring my beer drinking to a moderate level and thanks to my medication I can handle hard drugs like crystal meth and heroin but the one drug that was my undoing was marijuana. As far as triggering mental illness smoking skunk weed was the straw that broke the camels back and if i could go back in time and not get into using one particular drug it would be the marijuana. But what am i gonna do if i am a bad seed i am a bed seed.
 
Thanks, unfortunetely 1,200mg of lithium causes severe lethargy and adderall (prescribed) at 20mg 1x a day now helps tremendously although i use it as needed. Lithium is the best mood stabilizer i have tried. For me it is that i have to get a job and without it i can't even get out of ved and shamfully even brush my teeth, but with it i can function. I don't even really want rhe euphoria just to function, with lithium at such a high dose i have no issue with adderall and mania in fact, i tried 10mg amohetamine whilw hypomanic and it surprisingly calmed ne down physicaly and with 2 mg of klonopin my mind also calmed down. But i guess everyone is different. I just can't afford to be kicked out of my home for being "lazy" when i try excersize, diet and even natural supliments to help but my symptoms make it hard to even catch y breath, it sucks, but ifi stop it i have no other options my doc is considerjng ECT because after 13 years i have exhausted almost all med possibilities.. :(
 
PS during my diagbosis in the ER i was sober, they thought i was high and drug tested me, it was negative, after evaluation i was diagnosed by 3 differebt psychiatrist and psycjologisf before bejng sent to a osych ward, after i fell into major depression with latuda 60mg and began self medixating with low doses of meth, which worked. I got clean and moved and recentky saw my primary due to hurricane damage and inability to see a psych a d he prescribed adderall at a 20mg dose as needed, when i get to 900mg of lithium the lethargy starts tomorrow i go up to 1,200mg and the symptoms alwys get worse there and i end up a vegetable in bed, i won't lie sometimes i take the spare adderall and have recreationallt used 60-100mg rarely but no issues, however i am not pill seeking, i just want to be able to get a job, do my daily chores, not have peolme call me lazy because i can't get out of bed. I am willing ti try others but knowing how adderall works and the side efects for newhy change? Psychiatrists have me addicted to klonopin whicb is worse, if he sees symptoms of mania he can discontinue anytime. But it has been two months and my family says i an looking better than ever. I am tired of trial and error meds after 13 years, am i wrong for wanting my meds to stay the same since they worm better than others? I don't need a high, being functional nd getting a job to savee up and move is enough.
 
I had an early onset so I've run through a LOT of BP meds, but am stable for the most part now.. So let's see:

Diagnosed: Bipolar Type 1 with rapid cycling and mixed features, ADHD Hyperactive Impulsive Type, Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Current Medication Regime: 600 mg Lamotrigine ER, 300 mg Bupropion XL, 1 mg Clonazepam 2x Daily, 15 mg Dexedrine Spansule's 2x Daily.

Though I have dabbled with most types of illicit substances stimulants have always been my favorite, crystal meth and cocaine specifically. I've never abused any of my ADHD meds, primarily because I'm afraid they will stop working. I despise opiods, hallucinogens are fun but I'm afraid to use them anymore for fear of full blown psychosis, I take clonazepam therapeutically and have never enjoyed using benzo's recreationally, I do love good MDMA when I can get my hands on it.
 
I'm bipolar 2 and take Depakote, Prozac, Latuda, Klonopin, and VyVanse.
Vyvanse doesn't cause me mania unless I'm taking too much. I might have an hour when it first hits where I'm a little excitable and talkative but it mellows out.
 
I'm bipolar 2 and ADHD. Much more depressive features than Mania. I have been on most antidepressants and mood stabilizers out there. I take two 15mg tabs of Ritalin twice a day, 30mg Paroxetine, 40mg Latuda (Lurasidone), 50-100mg trazodon for sleep. Was on dexedrine then adderall but had zero effect. Ritalin has woken me up and I think one more increase to 40mg a day will be the ticket. Also Latuda saved my life from my deep depression.
 
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