What should I expect?

[Brynlyn]

Just got home from my VERY FIRST visit with a psychiatrist. After diagnosing me with Bi-Polar disorder here's what she prescribed:
Depakote 500mg ~ 1 in the AM & 1 in the PM
Risperdal 1mg ~ 1/2 to 4 tablets at bedtime and 1/2 tablet whenever I feel an *episode* coming on
Effexor XR 75mg ~ 1/2 x 3 nights, 1 x 3 nights, 1 + 1/2 x 3 nights, then 2 per night thereafter
Any warnings or suggestions? What should I expect? She had said something about lithium, what's that and what is it for? She didn't prescribe it this time unless that's the brans name of one of the things she did prescribe. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
*Peace*
Brynlyn

 

[Binary]

Dont expect to get high off any of those if thats's whatyou mean. I think effexor is known to cause extreme drowsiness and is good for sleep. Hopefully after a couple weeks of taking all of those your bi-polar symptoms will start susbiding. Other than that just expect nothing.

 

[lonewolf]

effexor will knock you out, that's why the're easing you into it.
i'm not a big fan of phych drugs for theraputic reasons. my childhood best friend has been on lithium for years now, it's sad, no highs, no lows. that's what life is, that's what makes it exciting.
who isn't bi-polar?

 

[Brynlyn]

Thanks people! I appreciate the replies. No I didn't want or expect any of this shit to be for recreational uses. I just know quite a few of the people on here have been on psych drugs and was just wanting their experiences with these drugs. You know first hand knowledge of the TRUE side effects. The pharmaceutical companies never give you the whole truth.
*Peace*
Brynlyn

 

[SovietContin]

effexor will knock you out, that's why the're easing you into it.
i'm not a big fan of phych drugs for theraputic reasons. my childhood best friend has been on lithium for years now, it's sad, no highs, no lows. that's what life is, that's what makes it exciting.
who isn't bi-polar?
Well, obviously you aren't bipolar.
Maybe you think your friends situation is sad, but if you were actually bipolar and reading this, you'd want to hit yourself. Because I'd sure love to deck you right now.
Yes, highs and lows make life exciting. But for the bipolar, it becomes a litte more than that. Your highs become extremes of paranoid delusion and sleepless nights where your body becomes more pumped up than had you taken meth. Your lows become near-suicidal points where you break down and cry for no reason and can't even crawl out of bed. You have no energy. Then you fluxuate back and forth. You can't eat. You can't sleep. When you finally do sleep, you sleep to much. You suffer from panic attacks. You can't go to school. You can't function. You become worthless and know the entire time you're a smart individual but can't even preform the most simple tasks to get by in life. Your highs and lows and emotional responses do not change with life events. They just change for no reason. You have no control over it.
That's why people like your friend take lithium. So at least they can function. Yes, you do miss out on certain points of life. But when the alternative is being housebound or being hospitilized, it seems worthwhile.
It's not something you just magically gain control over or learn to deal with. There are some exceptions, but who even knows if those people had bipolar anyways? For the average bipolar, the condition only becomes harder to deal with over time without medication. And it's quite common to get tired of having a limitted range of emotions and remove yourself from medications only to fall again and have to start completely over feeling worthless because you can't go through life without having a chemical crutch.
Well, now maybe you have a better idea of what your friend is going through and hopefully you can feel sorry for him for the right reasons.

 

[SovietContin]

Bryn.. if you're taking the Depakote which is probably 250mg doses.. watch taking it once in the morning and once at night.
If you start feeling tired all the time, talk to your doctor about possibly just taking 500mgs at night.
Depakote is really good for getting your moods stabilized fast without a lot of negative side-effects.. in the beginning. Infact, actually it has this nice side where it really keeps you from bottoming out and being depressed, but in the beginning you'll still get a lot of highs so you'll feel good. Now, not everyone gets this, but for some people after about 3-4 months they may start to experience a complete emotional bland point. Depakote has a few actions, one of them is working on a certain pump in the brain that can end up making you almost too-stable where you have no highs or lows at all. There is a new drug out that does everything that Depakote does without effecting the pump, so again, ask your doctor if this comes up as well.
I just recently switched from Lithium back to Depakote. The Lithium had me too dehydrated and I had discontinued for a while and it wasn't doing enough to stabilize me. I've been back on Depakote now for 3 weeks and I have gone from being miserable and about to quit my job to doing absolutely wonderful. After 2.5 months I'm going to switch to the newer drug. The reason I decided to start with Depakote anyways is that I've been on it twice before and it's already proven to quickly stabilize my moods.
I've never had Risperdal. My understanding is that it's like Seroquel. I would guess you're taking it at night to calm you down and if it's not calming you down and you can't sleep you're suppossed to increase your dose every 30 mins. And if you feel a panic attack coming on, you take it then as well. You should have absolutely no problems with this one. It should have a thought-organizing quality to it. While you're taking it to get to sleep, it should be helping correct imbalances as well.
The Effexor.. SSRI's always make my depression worse. Try it out, can't hurt. If you feel like the problems you went to the psychiatrist for in the first place are getting worse, see about just taking a mood stabilizer and Risperdal. I have bipolar and as long as I'm not having roller-coaster mood swings, the depression is not even an issue.
You may actually even ask for BuSpar, which is for anxiety, if the Effexor makes things worse. BuSpar has a slight anti-depressant effect. The downside to BuSpar is that it can upset your stomach.

 

[EazyRider]

what exactly is bi-polar???

 

[fairnymph]

1)This should be in Health Q & A
2)EFFEXOR WILL NOT KNOCK YOU OUT! I've been on effexor, I know ALOT about it, and what these idiots have said above (about it being sedating) is absolutely incorrect, so ignore them. Effexor is an SNRI (serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor) and it is used commonly to treat depression. I'm guess that is why you are on it, as bipolar people usually suffer from depression. Effexor is more likely to give you insomnia than sedate you. Because of its effects on the norepinephrine system it should give you more enegry not less. I liked Effexor alot, except for the fact that I could simply not orgasm on it. But at least my libido was normal.
3)Depakote is a mood stabilizer. It will prevent/reduce the peaks and valleys of your depression and mania. Or, that's what it is supposed to do. Depakote tends to limit and almost eliminate mania/hypomania, but it unfortunately doesn't do much for the depression. The Effexor should help out with the depression side of things, which is probably why your doctor prescribed it.
4)Risperdal is an antispychotic, and I don't know too much about it. It tends to make you sleep alot, and can adversely affect your libido, I believe, but like I said I'm not an expert on it.
5)Go to www.rxlist.com and type in those medications and you'll get a good idea about what kind of side effects to expect. Contrary to popular belief pharmaceutical companies are not evil and they do provide useful information about their drugs.

 

[Brynlyn]

EazyRider: what exactly is bi-polar???

Well, I find it very hard to describe with words but I'll try to anyway. Most *normal* people have a fairly level and short mood swing range, whereas the people who have Bi-Polar Disorder are on a wild, wild, WILD roller coaster ride of emotions. They have two separate "poles" ~ kind of like the Earth has the NORTH Pole and the SOUTH Pole.
This is what it's like if I'm on Side/Pole #1: This is the DOWN side, depression. Since I am EXTREMELY bi-polar, I get SEVERELY depressed. I sleep a TON (min-14 hrs to max-21 hrs a day). I binge on junk food and fast food. I rarely brush my teeth, once a day or every other day. I shower 1-2 times a week or if it's a really, REALLY bad 'down' episode then I might only shower once every other week. Everyday my thoughts are pretty much the same...All consuming worthlessness, absolutely NO self esteem AT ALL, feelings that EVERYONE is talking about me, paranoia, feelings that I am the most disgusting, nasty looking woman, no, PERSON in the entire world, that I am fat, lazy, not even worthy of taking up space on this planet and every other horrible thing that you could possibly think of. Oh and I would never, ever, EVER leave the house unless it was an emergency!
And here's what it's like if I'm on Side/Pole #2: This is the UP side, mania. I'm a BIG ball of emotions, very over-exaggerated. I have totally went off on my 10 yr old step-daughter about the teeniest, TINIEST little insignificant things! In the mania pole I get the *Angry* "I'm so DAMN mad I feel like I am going to EXPLODE right HERE, RIGHT NOW!" extreme or the *Super-Happy* "I'm SO very HAPPY! Life is WONDERFUL, life is GREAT, life couldn't ever be BETTER!!! My whole world is absolutely PERFECT, it's all the BEST It's EVER Been!" extreme. During the mania phase of the disease, bi-polar people require very little sleep. Often they can survive on just 2-4 hours of sleep a night. Some Bi-Polar people are commonly called *Drama Queens/Kings" and that is what it appears to be, but when you get right down to it, it's just the mania setting in. To me, my *mania* feelings are all very REAL, very solid and I feel like I have a good foundation for the reason I'm yelling or whatever.
Anyway, I hope this NOVEL that I wrote helps to explain things a little better for you.
Peace~
***Brynlyn***
[ 23 February 2002: Message edited by: Brynlyn ]