Mental Health Sober for almost a year and questions about MH and depakote withdrawal

I can't ride a bike unless you mean the one where you just sit back and use your legs, I can do that, but to sit down and ride a bike, that sounds hard.
 
I can't ride a bike unless you mean the one where you just sit back and use your legs, I can do that, but to sit down and ride a bike, that sounds hard.

I think NSA meant the stationary bike, so you should definitely try and give it a go to lose some initial weight as you start to get into gym. :)

Eat healthy!! This will help your mind be in a positive state a lot more and it will definitely help your diabetes which I can't think of a more important thing to concentrate on! Your health!

The bike does sound hard and I can understand that you are not a size 3 Cirque du Soleil ballerina, but if you wanna get those dates and look fit yourself, get the sneakers out and start doing a brisk 30 minute walk every day. The sunlight and release on endorphins will make this a part in your day that you should look forward to, take it easy. :)
 
Hey, how's it going?

One thing is for sure, don't ruin your soberness for occasionally boredom or loneliness. It's not worth it.

Second thing, don't quit gym. No matter how hard it's to drag yourself there, do it. And push your body to the limit every time, even you would feel lazy and like you don't have any power - you can still push your body to the limit. I know that sometimes it feels like it's not worth it/you don't care/other good explanation, but just force yourself to do that anyway. It will help with about everything I can promise. Also, don't go gym every day so it's easier to push your limits - you will lose weight faster also if you do it like that, compared to going to gym everyday but not even getting your pulse up. And losing weight shouldn't be like a one month thing. Figure out your ideal weight and decide that 2 years from now you are on your ideal weight with healthy diet and lifestyle. 2 years might sound like too long time, but that way you achieve results that stays. Doing 2 week power diet doesn't help you at all, quite opposite. Eating is fun and somewhat healthy way to give yourself something to smile about and as I see it if your normal diet/lifestyle is basically fine you don't have to worry too much about eating something unhealthy once in a while, so no need to give yourself too hard time cause of losing control with food. Just keep on hitting the gym all the time!

And about having a habit with snacks, don't worry, me too. Few tricks. First, buy protein shake. When feel like you need your snackfix, just make small protein shake. Do that all day - it takes away the urge/hunger little bit + you get useful proteins. Second, when you get fed up with shakes (keep taking those anyway) just start to buy healthier versions from your normal snacks. Fruits for example are quite good choice, but using imagination(or google) I'm sure you can find many other choices depending what you like to eat. One for me was starting to make my own sushi. That way I can just eat 1 or 2 Salmon Nigiri or choice of maki if feel like want something. And remember it's more about long term change, not about throwing everything away now and buying bananas today. Change the way you think about, don't try to avoid eating, just start to eat good food. And I know that nothing will really replace FAT,SUGAR and SALT, but it gets easier surprisingly quickly and soon you'll not even think about unhealthy versions.

About having something to do, kind of hard to give any personalized advice without knowing you better. But I just throw few ideas anyway. Start a blog? Maybe from your struggles with drugs or maybe about something completely different. At the same time start doing internet marketing? That can be kind of fun if you are person like that, and you can make some money also if you're lucky. Maybe start running/taking long walks outside and skipping the gym 1-2 times per week. Start playing Chess, chess.com is great website to learn and play against other people. Write a book about your life? Seriously, even it might sound like a awful lot of trouble it's still potential idea for few reasons. If it doesn't work out you have memoirs written for your friends/family/kids/future wife or just to yourself. If you get right kind of spark for writing, your life don't have to have anything too amazing and you can have a decent book which in best case can make money for you. Start photographing. Taking pics of random people when they don't notice is really creepy - but just don't get caught and it can be rewarding. Of course you can start photographing anything else, but I like to go sit somewhere with coffee and just taking pictures of beautiful girls or other creepy guys. Or if you have good camera enough, you could start taking more professional pictures and try to sell those. Not sure how those royalty free stock photo sites actually work, but I recently had to buy some pictures and WTF, they ask extremely high prices for photos that seemed like very basic. After you get more confident from the gym (and I would say you could do it already, no need to worry too much) start online dating. I feel like it's kind of hard to meet people if don't want to hang out at clubs/bars or meet friends of friends. And even from clubs it's kind of hard and frustrating nowadays. Don't try to find anything too serious, just more human contacts. Don't be picky - I'm not sure if you are woman or man, but if you are woman, just pick couple of guys and ask if they want to fuck, if you are a man, just pick few girls and ask if they want to chat/be friends/go have coffee. Usually guys will be your friends afterwards and girls will have sex with you afterwards so outcome will be same. If you feel like you are not ready for that, do it anyway, no matter how awkward or scary it feels. If something goes wrong, just laugh at it and tell us here so we can laugh also. That's worst that can happen so no reason not to do that.

Hopefully my tips will give you some ideas and make this suffering we call life a bit easier :)
 
Yaba that was really a great and funny post. Quite uplifting. Thanks to everyone, I am going to start applying this advice immediately.
 
Well I walked 30 mins outside j ust now. MY blood sugar dropped 100 points, woo hooo. THe only thing is that my inner thighs are sore from being rubbed up against my thigh, how am I going to work out when this happens? If it gets infected that could be a problem.

I also want to join match.com but I have libido issues, I believe this antipsychotic I'm taking is causing it. I can get aroused but that's usually when being gone dowon on or handys, but I'm not sure I can actually perform, but I'm unsure, been so long. SHould I join match.com anyways and try?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You might want to look into testosterone replacement therapy. Low T levels can cause libido issues, and trt should fix the issues brought by depakote.
Trt also helps with depression if your levels are too low. Talk to your doctor about it. Good luck :)
 
ALso does smoking raise blood sugar? I mean does it raise it just at the time or does it raise it throughout the day? I have started smoking again and I can't seem to get my blood sugar under 300. Would this be causing my blood sugars to be so high? I am chain smoking.
 
EDIT sorry I was posting this and didn't see your response.. are you on injectable insulin?


With blood sugars that high I would assume that you are a type one.. if not then you are a type two that will most likely need to be placed on insulin therapy. If you are on insulin then you will need to speak to your doctor about the correct way to increase your dose slowly until you get this under control. you need to quit smoking now. people with diabetes that smoke literally fall apart. Please quit now. And please email or call your doctor and I would also take the diabetes classes offered through the hospital or at the very least read a really good book on this.. it sucks we have this but It means that we have to step up and start taking really good care of ourselves<3

> nicotine-raises-blood-sugar-levels-in-lab <


By Mayo Clinic staff
Controlling Your Diabetes
Subscribe to our Controlling Your Diabetes e-newsletter to stay up to date on diabetes topics.

Sign up now
Long-term complications of diabetes develop gradually. The longer you have diabetes — and the less controlled your blood sugar — the higher the risk of complications. Eventually, diabetes complications may be disabling or even life-threatening. Possible complications include:

Cardiovascular disease. Diabetes dramatically increases the risk of various cardiovascular problems, including coronary artery disease with chest pain (angina), heart attack, stroke and narrowing of arteries (atherosclerosis). If you have diabetes, you are more likely to have heart disease or stroke.

Nerve damage (neuropathy). Excess sugar can injure the walls of the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) that nourish your nerves, especially in the legs. This can cause tingling, numbness, burning or pain that usually begins at the tips of the toes or fingers and gradually spreads upward. Left untreated, you could lose all sense of feeling in the affected limbs. Damage to the nerves related to digestion can cause problems with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation. For men, it may lead to erectile dysfunction.

Kidney damage (nephropathy). The kidneys contain millions of tiny blood vessel clusters (glomeruli) that filter waste from your blood. Diabetes can damage this delicate filtering system. Severe damage can lead to kidney failure or irreversible end-stage kidney disease, which may require dialysis or a kidney transplant. The rates of serious kidney disease have dropped significantly in recent years, likely due to improvements in diabetes management.

Eye damage (retinopathy). Diabetes can damage the blood vessels of the retina (diabetic retinopathy), potentially leading to blindness. Diabetes also increases the risk of other serious vision conditions, such as cataracts and glaucoma.

Foot damage. Nerve damage in the feet or poor blood flow to the feet increases the risk of various foot complications. Left untreated, cuts and blisters can become serious infections. Severe damage might require toe, foot or even leg amputation.

Skin and mouth conditions. Diabetes may leave you more susceptible to skin problems, including bacterial and fungal infections. Gum infections also may be a concern, especially if you have a history of poor dental hygiene.

Osteoporosis. Diabetes may lead to lower than normal bone mineral density, increasing your risk of osteoporosis.

Alzheimer's disease. Type 2 diabetes may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The poorer your blood sugar control, the greater the risk appears to be. One theory is that cardiovascular problems caused by diabetes could contribute to dementia by blocking blood flow to the brain or causing strokes. Other possibilities are that too much insulin in the blood leads to brain-damaging inflammation, or lack of insulin in the brain deprives brain cells of glucose.

Cancer. People with diabetes have a higher risk of some cancers. But the reasons aren't clear. It may be that the factors that increase the risk of type 2 diabetes also increase the risk of cancer, or it may be a factor of the disease or its treatment. This is an active area of research, but in the meantime, no changes in treatment are recommended.
 
My issue is how do I stop smoking? I just started up a few days ago after a year break. But now I want them b/c they give me something to do, as I have nothing to do, grrrrr! I just threw my pack away and now I'm worried b/c I get paid tomorrow.

Also this is back to my erectile dysfunction, I can get an erection with the right amount of work, but I can't even flex my unit like I used to be able to when I was aroused, does that mean there are pelvix muscles damaged?

Well I talked to my pdoc and he wants me to go off the depakote (problem is when I try to do this I have bad thoughts and want to hurt people), however, he said we're gonna flood me with antipsychotics to deal with those during the withdrawal. Then I may be off depakote for good, wish me luck everyone!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I just have an issue that I want to act on these thoughts when I go off the depakote. Should I still go ff it and fight the good fight?
 
Well I walked 30 mins outside j ust now. MY blood sugar dropped 100 points, woo hooo. THe only thing is that my inner thighs are sore from being rubbed up against my thigh, how am I going to work out when this happens? If it gets infected that could be a problem.

I also want to join match.com but I have libido issues, I believe this antipsychotic I'm taking is causing it. I can get aroused but that's usually when being gone dowon on or handys, but I'm not sure I can actually perform, but I'm unsure, been so long. SHould I join match.com anyways and try?

Invest in a pair of skins compression tights from your local sports store. They work wonders for such issues.
 
Invest in a pair of skins compression tights from your local sports store. They work wonders for such issues.
+1 cowboys have even been known to where pantihoes under neaht thier jeans to avoid this problem from abrasion to the saddle and hikers taking on long treks often employ the same tactic.. reduces the friction so it reduces the abrasion.
 
Does anyone know how long depakote withdrawal last?

I went cold turkey off depakote (it's called epival here) and my bipolar disorder got much much worse. Granted i was also on seroquel at the time and i was yanked off that as well and that was really working for me so that no doubt added to it. I never noticed any withdrawal except my symptoms coming back worse then ever but as divalproex is a anti-convulsant you need to taper off slowly to avoid the risk of having a seizure.

One thing about depakote/epival is that it does not help depression at all as it is just a anti-manic drug not a true mood stabilizer. In fact it can make depression worse for some people. Right now i take lamotrigine and seroquel to control my mood swings. I also take wellbutrin to help with my SAD and depression as the lamictal and seroquel does not always cut it on their own.
 
Top