Antidepressives?

[Suesser Tod]

After I broke up with my gf of 1.5 years I have been very sad and now it has led to depression. These last few days have been an absolute nightmare.

 

Today I went to have breakfast with my parents, and I almost broke into tears twice. I can't get anything done and well, I've just been depressed.

 

I've been diagnosed as bipolar. But I've been avoiding treatment, as the widthrawal sindrome from the antidepressives is awfull, but I think I might not be able to pull myself out of this hole by myself. I know breakups are hard, but it has been over 3 weeks and I'm worse everyday.

 

I'm going to therapy with an hollistic psychologist, so there are no medications. But I've been thinking about taking antidepressives. I've always been on Efexor XR, and it made me wary of all antidepressives because of the widthrawal, are all of them the same?

 

I don't want to do it, but, I don't think I can make it on my own...

 

 

Sorry if my phrases do not make sense, it's even getting hard to articulate them.

[Working]

Feeling sad and depressed is understandable given the breakup with the gf...

but bi-polar is a very serious condition as I am sure you already know...and while I believe in all kinds of treatment options for people with bi-polar disorder, I am a firm advocate of multiple "prong" approaches to treatment. So, in addition to whatever hollistic approaches are being used, you should seriously consider a medication that works for you. The key is finding something that works and you are just going to have to keep trying until you find one with minimal or no side effects. Everyone responds differently to different kinds of medication and unfortunately...its trial and error.

 

Good luck. Remind yourself that it will get better...because IT WILL!

[toshiba]

Whoa...you need serious help. Who diagnosed you, btw?

 

If a dr. diagnosed you with bipolar disorder, he/she should never have just put you on an anti depressant. That's not treatment for BPD. And did he wean you off Effexor properly?

 

Effexor has the worst withdrawal of any antidepressant drug. The others have almost no withdrawal effects. So you were put on the worst there is.

 

I would first get a proper diagnosis from a regular doctor (holistic won't do).

 

For BPD, you will need anti-depressants and a mood stabilizer at least and probably more than that.

 

But, my question is.....how do you know it's not depression that you have? To me, it sounds more like depression from what you describe. In recent years, BPD has been over-diagnosed in the U.S.

 

What are your symptoms?

[Suesser Tod]

The diagnosis came from two different psychiatrists several years ago, it's not something new.

 

And no, I wasn't only on Efexor XR, I also had a mood stabylizer (similar to lithium, but I can't recall the exact name) and another one for the anxiety (clonazepam - Klonopin), so it was a full blown BPD treatment.

 

However, I really never felt a lot better, it just kept me from going DEEP into the depression phases. So at the end I decided to learn to control it by myself, and I've somewhat managed to do so, but I guess I still have traits of BPD as I'm extremely antisocial (what ended up turning into making my ex the center of my world, and somehow I think she didn't liked that), loner (weird thing, I'm not the least bit shy, I just don't like to interact with people, but I also hate feeling alone) and unable to mantain healthy relationships (maybe related to the fact that I'm socially retarded, I have no social skills, so I end up making people run away from me).

 

However, currently I'm unable to handle it. I also know that in order to sustain a healthy relationship, whether it be with the ex or a new woman, I've got to fix myself. However, even if I know I've got to work on myself, I end up doing nothing.

 

So I guess it's time for me to do something about it. If I've been "blessed" with a non-functioning brain, I've got to do something about it.

[toshiba]

Just because those medicines didn't work for you doesn't mean you should have quit taking medicines altogether. There are different medicines to try and different combinations. Getting the right mixture takes time and it's up to you to invest that time wit a dr. in getting it right.

 

You don't give up the minute something doesn't work. Don't be passive about it. Educate yourself on your condition and find out what can be tried. There are many more drug possibilities that can work for you.

 

I'm guessing you were probably on Depakote? It could be that Depakote and Effexor didn't mix well together for you and they could replace the Effexor with Paxil or Wellbutrin or Remeron. There are plenty of them that they can try and they do not have withdrawal side effects like Effexor. Again, educate yourself.

[Suesser Tod]

The meds were Efexor XR, magnesium valproate and clonazepam (Klonopin).

 

Well, what kind of keeps me from doing it is that the meds are expensive, and on top of that, the sessions with the psychiatrist are also expensive.

 

I'm going to check if my healthcare can reduce the costs, I hope so.

[Miss Firecracker]

I hope so too. Are you reading the other thread about bipolar disorder tonight?

[Suesser Tod]

What other thread? I've been all day long on ENA trying to find the answers to the mistery of life but I guess I missed that one.

[Miss Firecracker]

[toshiba]

The meds were Efexor XR, magnesium valproate and clonazepam (Klonopin).

 

Well, what kind of keeps me from doing it is that the meds are expensive, and on top of that, the sessions with the psychiatrist are also expensive.

 

I'm going to check if my healthcare can reduce the costs, I hope so.

 

Magnesium valproate is in the same class as Depakote (Depakote is sodium valproate). Who knows...you might do better on Depakote.

 

So you don't have insurance? Does your dr. make you go in very often? A lot of them won't if they know you can't afford it. And if you need meds and can't afford them, you can get free samples from the dr. sometimes. Have you asked? You have to speak up for yourself....no one else will.