Just got disgnosed as bipolar and got prescribed lamictal, abilify and akineton. Is it over for me?
you should know yourself how bad it is. depression (manic or not) kills nerves and causes dementia etc later on. but psychotherapists are also easy on the prescriptions as they have an incentive to keep you coming back and giving them money.
>>33844992What were your symptoms before diagnosis?
>>33844992You better take a look at those fucking side-effects.
>>33844992>nickrel>asking if it's over
>>33844992>>33845014Bipolar especially when in a rage state kills brain cells. Long term antipsychotic use permanently shrinks your frontal and temporal lobes affecting your intelligence and decision making abilities. You're fucked either way.Source: Am bipolar. Decided to manage depressed state with NDRI and just avoid people when I am hypomanic. Works for me, your mileage may vary depending on how your symptoms manifest.
I would try to get off the medication if when you get a grasp of your BP. I have it. Unmediated.Try to eat healthy. Exercise. Shit sucks at times but feel better knowing my happiness is my own. Get to feel emotions instead of just turning into a medicated zombie staying neutral the entire time.
>>33845553Biggest rule i learned is to actively suppress excitement and happiness. Can’t let those highs go up, or they will go way up, and then invariable crash way down. It will feel like apathy but it’s actually not. Going from an 8 to a 3 will feel like apathy, but that’s just what normal people feel.
>>33845552I've been dealing with this for 20 years without meds.TLDR you can live a functional life if you do things right, but it will never be a normal life.This guy is pretty much right.Severe bipolar episodes slowly turn your brain into swiss cheese as you destroy gray matter.The second gen antipsychotics also damage gray matter. Plus you will eventually get the shakes (tardive dyskinesia) The only drug that protects your brain is lithium, but using it for 20+ years will probably destroy your kidneys.See, bipolar is a spectrum disorder. You will never be cured of it but it can get better over time. Some people grow out of the worst of it around 30 while others just get worse.My advice...Live as clean and independent stress free life as you can.No legal or illegal drugs, including caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana.Healthy diet. Cut down on processed foods, cook your own meals.Regular exercise. Take a walk or bike every day.Live below your means. You will have periods where you're making really good money and then little to none. Save your money during good periods. There are places in the US where you can buy a house for 40K. Then you no longer have to worry about being homeless.Have a couple people you can talk to gauge your mental health. These can be professionals or friends. If you can self regulate your behavior before it becomes a serious problem you will have a better outcome.
I have mild type 2.thought it was just run of the mill anxiety/depression for years, took SSRIs, which blunted the depressive periods but exacerbated the mania (this was actually really good for my creative output).anyhow, I'm getting off the meds because, even tho they worked reasonably well, most of the time, I was having a major identity crisis where I couldn't remember who I actually was. Felt like I was living by proxy.So I've decided to just ride out the ups and downs and relearn what it's like to experience life and myself without intervention
>>33845797That doesn't sound like living to me.
>>33844992lithium seems less harsh than antipsychotics, why not try that? At least lamictal isn't that bad, as long you don't get the rash.
>>33845859>rashLet’s look at take a look at that “rash”>Complications include dehydration, sepsis, pneumonia and multiple organ failure
>>33846181smartass
>>33846193Ah yes, warning people about the seriousness of these side-effects makes me a smartass. How about abilify effectively causing permanent parkinsons, even after you stop taking it?
>>33845859>>33846210Lamictal made me get stuck in a dysphoric state and increased impulsivity which led me to a hospitalization.Abilify caused me to get obsessed with gambling for 2 months where I slowly won a couple hundred over time, convinced myself I had a winning strategy and then ended up losing $1000 over the course of about 3 minutes.
>>33846238>Abilify caused me to get obsessed with gambling for 2 months where I slowly won a couple hundred over time, convinced myself I had a winning strategy and then ended up losing $1000 over the course of about 3 minutes.Sounds based af
>>33846210If you want to debate which one is worse, lamicatal or abilify, then make it more clear instead of writing a smartass remark. Also its not the responsibility of anons to mention those side effects
>>33845840>just ride out the ups and downsI've got mild(ish) type 1 and that's what I did. I learned early on that when I got depressed that it likely didn't mean anything and to just plod along until I got over it and then reassess when I was more rational. My problem was mania, it took a few decades before I could recognize when I was manic, my obsession-of-the-moment was invariably a really good idea that I was completely competent to do - but my mania made me massively underestimate the effort it would take. When my mania subsided I would crash into depression because this really good idea that could make me a lot of money was going to take a decade or more of full-time work to pull off and I knew I would lose interest before finishing. Now that I can recognize when I'm manic I'm pretty good at keeping myself level, also I switched careers into something that was slightly less remunerative but a lot less stressful, and that also seems to have drastically reduced my "excursions".
>>33845044>>33845552>Some studies suggest aripiprazole (Abilify) can cause a gray matter volume increase, particularly in patients with conditions like major depressive disorder, possibly by counteracting the gray matter deficits associated with the illness.BTFO
