Mental Health Electroconvulsive Therapy and drug use.

[Wonde_Alice_rland]

It seems to me like I've tried literally every option I've been presented. My psychiatrist told me that Venlafaxine was the last category we didn't try for my bi-polar/depression/PTSD. I started ECT about a month or so ago. I hadn't used amphetamine paste or marijuana at all from then until last night. I cried for hours last night and was unsure if I could remain safe, so I started using amphetamine again. I am unsure if either amphetamine or marijuana interferes with ECT, so I came here to ask.

I know people who have taken adderal while being treated with ECT, but whatever that means in regards to amphetamine paste I am unsure.

Thank you very much for your response, it is greatly appreciated.

 

[Wonde_Alice_rland]

Dealing with treatment-resistant bi-polar. ECT isn't helping.

I'm in my early 20's and have been dealing with depression/bi-polar/mania since I was around 16. My psychiatrist says I have tried all the medications that are used to treat this disorder and, while some have helped control my mania (I'm not literally throwing money at people anymore), I am still heavily depressed and dealing with intense thoughts of suicide. I started Electroconvulsive Therapy some time ago as what I considered my last resort. After doing a full regiment of treatment on one side of the brain and having no positive outcome, I began having bilateral treatment. I am around half way through (6 out of 12 treatments) the bilateral regiment, yet have experienced no recognizable benefit. The other night I had one of my worst nights in quite a few weeks (if not months), where I constantly sobbed and felt as though suicide was my best option. That night I started using amphetamine again and have been injecting it daily with a 24 hour break every couple days. I simply don't know what to do, I don't know if ECT is helping, especially since I have been dealing with suicide thoughts much more prominently after starting bilateral treatment. I just feel hopeless, I live with my family and have no job. I don't feel like I can come forward to any of them though, I feel as though they will overreact and try to send me to a psych ward (which have not been helpful in the past) at the very least, and if I tell them about my drug use they will surely take all of it away. I have gone months without the drug with no problems, so I know I am not physically addicted to it, however, with my sever suicidal thoughts I am using it to help when I feel the ideation is becoming too great.

I simply don't know what to do, I feel like there is no hope. My only hope was the ECT; and since my suicidal thoughts are becoming more severe after starting it, I am unsure if I should stop. I don't know who I can turn to. I don't know what hope if any is remaining. Not to worry, I am not currently at risk of suicide and if I feel I can't control suicidal urges I will tell somebody. I just feel hopeless though.

 

[neversickanymore]

Hey Wonder and welcome to BL:D

Im sorry you are struggling with this. I assume you have tried lamictal?

What about cognitive behavior therapy?

I would also VERY strongly consider including at least thirty minutes of aerobic exercise four or five days a week into you treatment.. i can do wonders.

I suffered with BP2 for quite awhile.. I have been able to change the way i think and alter other aspects of my life so that i am no longer on any medications and no longer really experience any symptoms.

One of the keys for me was no longer judging anything as good or bad. Our brain chemistry effects how we think, but how we think effects our brain chemistry as well. I think that recognizing and eliminating black and white thinking is paramount to treating BP2. I assume thats you diagnoses as you describe strong depression and hypomanic states? If we constantly judge everything in black and white, everything is going great or its going awful. When its going great we are on top of the world and can do anything, not to mention spend all our money and sleep with everything attractive we come across. Eliminate judging anything as good or bad.

I would find a really good therapist that works with BP2 patients. I would ad exercise into your treatment immediately, but watch out as it can send you into hypomanic untill you are able to learn to control your perception and thoughts. I would no longer seek that im on top of the world feeling and instead make a peaceful state your desired state. Cut as much processed sugar and cafine out of your diet. I would set and stick to strict sleep hygiene and bed times. I would get a Blue Therapy light and use this in the morning but not after 3 pm. I would add a quality multivitamin if you are not already consuming one. I would consider seeing and endocrinologist and having your hormone levels checked.

If you are really close to trying suicide then you should talk with a medical professional that can help you find possible short term inpatient treatment while you figure all this out.

You can figure this out, we are not just slaves to our moods, we can make our moods slave to us.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive behavioral therapy

it is a powerful thing to keep our thoughts positive and here are some threads many of us use to help us do this.
Managing depressive thinking
Share something POSITIVE from your day!
Today I Am Thankful For... Ver. 3: Earth, Wind and Fire!

Exercise and Brain Neurotransmission
Neurobiology of Exercise
Exercise 4 Health, Mental Health, and Addiction vs. I worked all that out

Here is the mindfulness thread.




I hope this helps and you come up with and institute a strong recovery plan that includes many aspects and not just psych meds as they are the most reliable. But if you address this from many different angle you will have a much more peaceful life you can even learn to facilitate and generally maintain a state that hovers right below hypomania.. kinda like paradise

TDS --> MH

 

[bdomihizayka]

How long have you maintained sobriety in the recent past?

It seems that you should be sober for at least 6 months before you can start assessing any mental health issues with any accuracy. The brain takes quite a bit of time to bounce back after drug abuse/ use. If I were you, I would try and maintain FULL sobriety for at least 6 months to see where you are at mentally. It's going to suck, but I feel you need to do that to have any kind of idea where you are at.

I felt suicidal and worse for a very long time, longer than 6 months after my drug use ended.... but in the end, I bounced back to normalcy.

Exercise (INTENSE exercise.... you should be gasping for air at the end of your session- a one mile walk doesn't count!) and keep the regimine up for at LEAST 3 months before assessing if it's working or not! Don't be lazy- this is your life you're trying to save! , a spot on diet, and spirituality is what you may need to change your thinking and brain health, which will in turn get you in a great place.... healthy mind, healthy body... and vice versa

 

[cay]

I'm diagnosed type 1 bipolar, I know what you are going through and I kinda laughed when you said you finally stopped basically throwing money at people.

This is one suggestion that I don't want to make, but when I started taking opiates for my chronic pain it was like night and day. My emotions finally fucking stabilized. No more suicidal depression no more delusions of grandeur either, I sold my motorcycle and stopped driving over 120 and became far more financially responsible (less impulsive). I liked being manic, I thought it defined part of who I was as a person though which put me in kinda a constant state of depression missing part of who I was, then I was in depression because I was abusing the opiates and I knew I needed to quit.

And that's why I hate to offer it as advice, there is a doctor doing a study on opiates effects on bipolar. And all I can say is it worked well for me the doc is out of TN iirc.

 

[neversickanymore]

I just merged your posts. I also noticed that you have just recently stopped drug use.. esp speed. If you want to share how long did you use, to what extent, and did you use while you were trying to control your symptoms with medications? What time period did the inset of your symptoms and what time period did you begin your drug use?

Share if you want to, but this information could help people give you better insight and advice.

 

[Trying2Iso]

I've had 11 ECT treatments
i found them very effective, i am now on Abilify to supplement the ECT but the abilify didn't work until well after the ECT

 

[paranoid android]

I am totally against ECT so take this for what it's worth. Basically all ECT does is induce a seizure thus induce long term memory loss, decline in cognitive abilities and the idea is that you sort of forget why you are miserable. From what i have read of it it is certainly not worth the risks associated with it. I know of 2 peole that have committed suicide not long after reciving ECT treatment and one of them had memory loss so bad they couldn't even remember their kids when they visited her ffs!

I have Bipolar Nos with mixed states, rapid cycling and features of psychosis. I damn near killed myself and thought of nothing but suicide until i found the right meds. Everyone reacts differently to meds and it takes alot of trial and error. Right now i am taking 200mg's of Lamictal a day along with 300-400mg's of seroquel a day. If the winter blues kick in i will have to go back on Wellbutrin most likely as that helps with little in the way of negative side effects. Tricyclics like Amitriptyline and Trimipramine also work well for me. Zyprexa works far better for me then seroquel does but as my insurance does not cover it and it's a fucking fortune i'm stuck with seroquel.

Have you really tried every group of meds that can help bipolar? Sometimes doctors just get frustrated and go for something like ECT when there are loads of other medications out there that could be tried. Have you tried tricyclics? The mood stabilizers Lamictal and Lithium? Anti-manic drugs such as Divalproex aka Depakote aka epival aka just another Valproate or the rather nasty Carbamazepine that does sometimes work for mania. There are also the typical anti-psychotics such as Thorazine/Largactil and Loxapine that help the manic aspect of it. If depression is a major problem for you hell why not try MAOI's if your doctor is willing to go to extremes like ECT. The Emsam patch is a much safer MAOI but older non selective non reversible ones such as Parnate, Nardil and Marplan have been used to treat bipolar depression as well. Though they can sometimes be quite stimulating and trigger off mania.

If you want to go off label you could try ketamine. It's been proven to help with bipolar depression and i find that it has mood stabilizing properties as well.