FluidLink
Greenlighter
I'm a 20 year old guy and I've just recently been diagnosed with bipolar II and I have no idea whatsoever if that's the correct diagnosis for me. I have extremely sparse contact with my psychiatrist (once every two months) and haven't been able to get in contact with a psychologist at all. This is a byproduct of me living in a country with a somewhat crippled mental health system, but nevermind that, I've got the internet to help me. 8)
I'm currently taking Litarex (Lithium) 6mmol 1/day (half morning, half evening, to be increased to 2/day) and Venlafaxine 75mg (probably better known as Effexor). I'm switching from Fluoxetine (Prozac) 25mg. I also take 25mg Seroquel for sleep and have now for a while.
I've always been prone to (what I've been told is) hypomania when on antidepressives but never really veered that deep into depression, I've felt like crap and wanted to die for a couple of days here and there and had anxiety issues since I was a kid but I've never considered myself depressed as such. I've been having some mild delusional thinking I guess with constantly thinking my girlfriend is fucking around behind my back (which is bullcrap) but I'm not sure if this is a delusion or obsession or some other fun mental quirk. Anyway she knows I have issues and we're working on it.
So I have a bunch of questions that I was hoping you'd have opinions on / answers to and since I don't want to bore you to death, here's a list with short sentences instead of a huge paragraph for each one. If you need more info or something I'll answer you then and just append it to this post.
I realize that this probably is way too long for anybody to want to read it so here's a
TL;DR: 20m, doc says I have bipolar, put me on meds, I don't know what to do next. Questions in list above.
I'm currently taking Litarex (Lithium) 6mmol 1/day (half morning, half evening, to be increased to 2/day) and Venlafaxine 75mg (probably better known as Effexor). I'm switching from Fluoxetine (Prozac) 25mg. I also take 25mg Seroquel for sleep and have now for a while.
I've always been prone to (what I've been told is) hypomania when on antidepressives but never really veered that deep into depression, I've felt like crap and wanted to die for a couple of days here and there and had anxiety issues since I was a kid but I've never considered myself depressed as such. I've been having some mild delusional thinking I guess with constantly thinking my girlfriend is fucking around behind my back (which is bullcrap) but I'm not sure if this is a delusion or obsession or some other fun mental quirk. Anyway she knows I have issues and we're working on it.
So I have a bunch of questions that I was hoping you'd have opinions on / answers to and since I don't want to bore you to death, here's a list with short sentences instead of a huge paragraph for each one. If you need more info or something I'll answer you then and just append it to this post.
- I used to smoke weed most weekends. I stopped about 2 months ago because I had a really bad bout of paranoia (thought my girlfriend was cheating on me and everyone knew) while high at a party and realized being high hadn't been fun for a while. Will I fuck shit up if I smoke again? (I'm fine with not smoking if that's what it takes to get better)
- What about psychedelics? I've tried a low-dose mushroom trip and that was fun but ever since then I've had a very light case of visual snow, along with sometimes feeling uncomfortable looking at repeating patterns. Is this the time to accept that I'll never be a psychonaut?
- Do you think telling my boss what's going on is a good idea? He's understanding and such but I'm not sure if this will colour his perception. I work as a programmer at a two-man consulting company.
- When should I expect to feel better? How good am I going to feel? Is the anxiety going to go away?
- I never thought of myself as depressed, isn't that necessary for a bipolar II diagnosis?
I realize that this probably is way too long for anybody to want to read it so here's a
TL;DR: 20m, doc says I have bipolar, put me on meds, I don't know what to do next. Questions in list above.