Please or to access all these features

Mental health

Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you have medical concerns, please seek medical attention.

The Bipolar Support Thread

999 replies

BippityBoppity87 · 05/12/2018 11:46

Hi everyone Smile Just thought I'd start a shiny new thread for anyone who is suffering from bipolar disorder.

Hope everyone is ok!

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
FissionChips · 06/01/2019 02:41

Well, I’ve managed to somehow nip that episode in the bud. Just arrived home from a midnight walk, it was lovely and refreshing. I feel okish now.

Do you become a recluse Bippity?
I can easily not leave the house for months, longest being 8 months without setting foot outside. It never actually feels like a long time to me though. It’s one of my most difficult symptoms really.

BippityBoppity87 · 06/01/2019 08:54

Yep, quite easily. The longest I didn't speak or see anyone was two months. Last year was pretty bad too.

Once again, I drunk too much last night. Went out with some friends and now I'm paying the price. I need to stop this, as alcohol either makes me hyper the next day or really depressed. I'm starting to feel depressed again and just want to lie in bed all day feeling sorry for myself.

OP posts:
FissionChips · 06/01/2019 09:39

Oh dear! Are you drinking high percentage alcohol? It probably is best that you cut all alcohol out, for a while at least, you won’t be able to tell the full effects of the medication otherwise.

Don’t lie in bed. Get up, have some painkillers, a cold shower and go for a walk.
Easier said than done but the effort is worth it.

BippityBoppity87 · 06/01/2019 09:43

I'm up now. I'm thinking no point lying in bed all day. I'm going to stop drinking, that it.

I mainly drunk lager last night. So it was maybe 5%? I think I had about 6/7 of those and three jagerbombs.

I know. But I found when I didn't drink, sertraline on its own made me incredibly hyper and a bit loopy, so I drunk to calm myself down.

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 06/01/2019 09:48

Going to have a shower, put a face mask on, maybe watch a film. Try and not clean the house as I end up doing that and forget to actually look after myself. Going to think positive thoughts Smile

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 06/01/2019 09:49

And stay away from internet shopping! That's my worst habit.

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 07/01/2019 16:23

How is everyone this evening? Everyone ok?

OP posts:
tierraJ · 07/01/2019 18:40

Hi I'm at work tomorrow morning then starting at a therapy group run by an nhs psychologist.
It's for people with a variety of MH problems who are highly self critical.
I wanted counselling but the psychologist recommended this group instead.
It's a 12 week course every tues until April.
I'm a bit nervous!!

BippityBoppity87 · 07/01/2019 18:53

Ah ok @tierraJ I'm currently having CBT. Think I've had about 6 sessions now. It was her that voiced her concerns about bipolar to my psychiatrist, who then saw me and confirmed it. Funnily enough I was only in there for 20 minutes! Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

Think I have about 3 sessions left. She did offer DBT for my self harm, but I don't know. I think I might join a bipolar support group in my area. There's a couple, so I might go.

OP posts:
tierraJ · 07/01/2019 19:44

That's a good idea to join a support group

BippityBoppity87 · 07/01/2019 19:57

I don't know what to expect. I'm usually very shy and quiet by nature, until I'm hypomanic and it's another story! Not really something I would usually do, but it would be nice to meet others out there in rl.

OP posts:
DiaryofWimpyMum · 08/01/2019 12:01

There's a Mental Health group a few miles from where I live but I've never worked up the courage to go. I'm very shy and quite awkward around people too. Definitely not a people's person.

DiaryofWimpyMum · 08/01/2019 12:06

When I'm hypomanic I speak to anyone who will listen Grin

BippityBoppity87 · 08/01/2019 12:24

It can be a blessing and curse Grin people who don't know me (in my hypomanic stage) just think I'm generally up beat, happy go lucky, chatty friendly etc, but at the same time, I'll do things I won't usually do. Flirtatious, over share, spend too much money, drink too much, yada, yada, yada...

I do feel like I'm two sides of the same coin sometimes. Like night and day. Then the depression will creep in and I'll sometimes feel embarrassed or even ashamed of what I did and just want the ground to swollow me up.

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 08/01/2019 12:27

I actually met my DP when I was hypomanic. Still together all these years later!

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 08/01/2019 16:11

I've gone and hurt my bloody knee again. Been in agony all day. It's slightly swollen and I'm having to rely on my crutches. Very sharp pain on the inside and around the knee cap. Tried elevating it, 8mg co-codamol ice, still in agony.

Should I ring nhs 24? I have no idea what to do.

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 08/01/2019 16:18

Or a&e? Is that too extreme?! I don't know what to do! Even if someone can give me stronger pain killers.

OP posts:
tierraJ · 08/01/2019 18:29

Ring 111 if it's still bad. That's the emergency drs. They may tell you to go to a&e. Hope it improves soon.

BippityBoppity87 · 08/01/2019 23:18

I'll mention it at my next meds appointment as I can't carry on like this. Been having to use my crutches to get about the house. And now I feel sick after taking my aripiprazole, and utterly exhausted, but I know I'm not going to sleep well because of my knee. Also I don't know if the mixture of drugs today had made me feel a little nauseous.

OP posts:
Badstyley · 09/01/2019 00:32

Hi all I just wrote a long post then deleted.

I’m in my mid 30s, ish... I was diagnosed with Bipolar II four years ago, but it’s been going on since I was a young teen, 11 actually I recon.

I can’t sleep ATM. I lie awake for hours then I can’t get up in the morning. I have a small stash of sleepers but I have to rashon them, partly because only benzos work for me, and partly because I didn’t sleep for three weeks after I came off Quetiapine, so I’m scared of getting dependant.

Anyway I’ll RTFT tomorrow when I’m less tired, well, maybe not less tired...

It’s lovely to have found you all and I’ll be back.

BippityBoppity87 · 09/01/2019 09:19

Welcome @Badstyley Smile It's nice to feel less alone isn't it? Sometimes in rl, I feel like I must be the the only one going through this, or that I must be a bad person, or annoying and everything is my fault. Then the paranoia kicks in. I like to come on here and have a wee rant!

OP posts:
Badstyley · 09/01/2019 09:29

Hello, yes. I’m pretty isolated, other disability, so I am on my own most of the time, apart from DS, and DP at the weekends.

I still doubt myself half the time. I keep thinking I’m making it up and that I’m just being silly/attention seeking/over dramatic/excuse making. I’m not of course but I’m one of these shut up and get on with it people. I’m having a calmer period atm though so I’m alright and want it to stay that way, apart from the crap sleep that is. I think we just learn to live with a high level of crap and our bar for being unwell/having a crisis is higher.

BippityBoppity87 · 09/01/2019 09:34

I'm definitely a 'just get on with it' type of person too. I don't realise how ill I am until it's too late and I need crisis team involvement. I think I suffered in silence for about 9 months with my depressive episode until I ended up in a&e.

I think I underestimate how ill I am, and just want everyone to go away and leave me alone, but I know that won't be happening anytime soon!

OP posts:
BippityBoppity87 · 09/01/2019 09:39

Even with crisis team involvement and nearly ending up in hospital, I thought everyone around me was being over dramatic and I didn't think I was as ill as they were making out. But I suppose they wouldn't be there if they thought you were being attention seeking. Still can't help thinking it though, and I did voice it once and I was so paranoid that that's what everyone thought.

OP posts:
Badstyley · 09/01/2019 10:29

When I’m ill, and I know I’m ill I just keep on keeping on. I tell myself it’ll pass, as it normally does, eventually, but if things go horribly wrong, as they have done occasionally, I get it in the neck for not asking for help. The problem is that whenever I do ask for help I don’t get any. I can ring the AMHT in a desperate state and I won’t get so much as a phone call back for a week or more, even after chasing. I’ve got to the point now where I just don’t bother and force myself through whatever problem it is.

I’ve had god knows how many care coordinators in the last 7 months. I asked to change from the one I had long term because she was a gaslighting nightmare. She’d Be fine when I was was fine, but as soon as things went south she’d turn into a lecturing teacher and tell me it was all my own fault. Since then I’ve had a string of agency workers who disappear within a month, or in the last case, I saw her once and she’d gone again. It’ no wonder I’ve given up. I haven’t had any contact from the team for months now. I haven’t seen my psych for a year, despite nearly managing to off myself last summer. I’m just hoping my current period of stability, ish, lasts for a long time. I’ve got an awful year ahead of me though so we’ll see.

Is it normal to have such crap treatment from the MH team? I know things are stretched to breaking point but no contact seems wrong. The care coordinator I asked to swap from used to tell me off for saying I understood they were stretched. She’d say it wasn’t true, not realising that the only other explanation for her shittiness was her own incompitance. She was supposed to refer me to therapy two years ago but she forgot. The email got lost apparently, although when she searched her sent box she couldn’t find it. You can make up your own mind.

I bloody fed up tbh. I need help > I ask for help > I get no help > I give up asking > something goes wrong > I get SS on my doorstep and I get it in the neck for not asking. I get promised all sorts of support from MH and SS but nothing ever happens. DS said to me yesterday that he feels abandoned. His dad is a alcoholic and he’s been promised support for this and that, but even his SW hasn’t seen him for two months and it’s me who has to pick up the pieces. I really struggle to cope myself sometimes and I’m left to deal with the disappointment they cause DS as well. The whole thing is a piss take.