Comments on: Bipolar Disorder Agitated Mania/Dysphoric Mania

By: Harriet

Harriet — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:29:27 +0000

When I was diagnosed with BP II a few years ago, I was quite shocked. 1. I never had any manic episodes, and 2. having worked as a clinician in the mental health field, I had never heard of this diagnosis. It wasn’t until a new doc increased my lexapro up to 10 mg. (which I had only been on for a couple months) that I thought I was losing my mind and was scared enough to call someone. This was what led him to the BP II dx and not just depression (which I believe I successfully masked to the outside world for a very long time.) It took me a while to look at those behaviors that tend to be more hypomanic – getting real good ideas – like starting my PhD, having energy, being more social, and feeling positive.
I began taking Lamictal and felt better immediately – even while detoxing from the lexapro. It’s been a few years now and I am at 200mg. When I see my doc, he tells me that an increase will not be effective, but that isn’t what I find on sites such as this one. I began searching again today because I don’t want to resign myself to the belief that I will always feel this way, which makes me feel more depressed. When I read about the generic vs lamictal, something clicked in – for the last 2 months I have noticed a steady decline in my mental state – which made me look at my med bottle. Interestingly, I have been on the generic lamotrigine for about 1 1/2 months. I plan on rectifying this asap.
I don’t want to augment the lamictal with another med., and I want to ask you Julie about your experience in increasing your dose to 500mg.
Thank you, I know this comment has a few different topics

By: cliff

cliff — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:30:00 +0000

I agree with you, julie. Hypomania is the best…until it ends. I even miss it as I was awake for 19 hours and got so much done. The toll it took on my family and my career was devastating. I would rather stay in balance, on meds, then do that to the people I love,

PS thanks for the great website!!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:03:06 +0000

I only had euphoric mania once. I felt like i could conquer the world. i felt like a super hero. that if i wanted to sly i could, it was a wild ride. that was 6 years ago. ever since then i have been in a slight depressed state, even taking cymbalta, lithium, abilify and lamictal. you would think i would be happy as a pig in shit, right? NOPE.

By: Seth

Seth — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:08:16 +0000

I’m pretty much mixed state. I cycle back and forth between depression and mania.

Sleep and weight management are challenges. I looked like the walking dead.

Agitation, irritability, anxiety and paranoia were present. The right medication and meeting with an experienced psychologist that understood BP were mind saving essentials.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:16:57 +0000

I usually have dysphoric mania. I get very irritable and grouchy and am just a difficult person to be around, especially for my family.

I have had euphoric mania occasionally. When it happens I just have a lot of energy and I just want to clean the house from top to bottom, make lots of lists of things to do…and then burn out in a few days or a week!