The Bipolar Support Thread

[BippityBoppity87]

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

Hope everyone is ok!

I was on a dating site last night and this guy comes on with a picture of him and his daughter. He said his wife had died and he was looking for someone to live his daughter like their own.

First message too. I had to tell him I was too old for him and he should be looking for someone a bit younger to perhaps have more children. He didn't reply but left the dating site.

Love not live

How wierd dodged a bullet there I think! What a bizarre opening message lol.

Yes he was a bit intense for me.

Had my psychiatrist appointment yesterday, my lamotrigine has been increased to 200mg. So I’m currently on that, plus 150mg sertraline and 5mg aripiprazole.

Although I’ve heard 5mg isn’t really a therapeutic dose? I’ve also been given oxazepam for my anxiety. Has anyone got any experience of this?

I can’t take lorazepam as it’s only given in hospital and diazepam does sweet fa for me. Have another appointment with him in two weeks time, plus I have a gp appointment today at half 4.

I haven’t been getting sick pay since I’ve been off (just over 2 weeks) do you think she would be able to back date it for me?

I’m also going to ask for something to take to stop me craving alcohol as I need to nip that in the bud too.

I've no experience with them bippity but I hope they are helpful, I find diazepam about as much use as a chocolate teapot!

My MP phoned me today about my ESA she suggested I get a letter from my psychiatrist or doctor to say I needed a hone visit as these assessments cause me so much anxiety, she also said they could ask for a paper led decision.

So I phoned my psychiatrist he called me back and agreed to write the letter and I've to collect it from him at my appointment on 4th.
I'm not sure how I feel about a home visit @WhyDidIEatThat how did you find it, was it intrusive? The dog will have to go to my mums, she's very Barky and jumpy.

I should add I haven't even sent my form back into them yet as I have to wait for cab to come out and fill it in. I couldn't get to them because my leg still hurts after fracturing my knee and I haven't driven since I did it

Hope your GP back dates it for you I don't see any problem with that @BippityBoppity87

Good luck

Why here, change of name. 👋

They refused to do a home visit when we asked, because on my original DLA form years and years ago my cpn and sw wrote that I had a history of attacking people. I think that was just an excuse! The PIP face to face was my first ever assessment of that type of thing, I found everything around it worse than the interview itself. If that makes sense.

Well done for getting out of there Bip, much easier to get in to hospital than out of it! 💐 I’ve often had lorazepam as an outpatient, never tried oxazepam though. One I used to have almost on ‘take as many as you want whenever you want’ basis that also helped me not drink so much was chlordiazepoxide - this was during an exceptionally tough time. I don’t know if it’s still in use?

I asked for something to stop my drinking as that can trigger me into a mixed episode. What got me admitted in the first place. But she said there wasn’t really anything.

I was only in hospital I think for 11 days, so it wasn’t too bad, but when I came out I felt like I was at square one again. My psychiatrist wants to see me in two weeks time, but I honestly feel like I’m getting better. I don’t feel low, I don’t feel hyper. Well I don’t think I am. I have butterflies in my stomach, which is usually a warning sign, but I honestly feel great just now.

My psychiatrist was thinking of taking me off aripiprazole and just having lamotrigine and sertraline, which doesn’t make any sense to me, as I thought lamotrigine stopped bipolar depression, but sertraline can potentially send me manic (like it did in my other thread) so I don’t know how that’s going to work

I think lamotrigine is supposed to treat bipolar depression and also helps to prevent depressive/manic relapse but you wouldn’t use it alone to treat mania if that makes sense?

Yeah that makes sense, but I would have assumed they would take me off sertraline and leave the aripiprazole. Mainly because I’ve has mild psychosis in the past. One of them being I thought I was an alien. Another time when my mum died, it triggered a mild psychotic phase for 3 months where I heard voices and was convinced there were demons in the house. That wasn’t pleasant.

I’m scared that they will take me off aripiprazole as I was hypomanic before they put me on it and it pretty much nipped it on the bud.

Oh god, remember when I was saying on the other thread how I was blurting out random numbers on the bus then smiling and laughing away on my own that was when I was just on sertraline. That was embarrassing!

I know how you feel it took the olanzapine to stop my hypomania and the thought of stopping it scares me. I wasn't always cheery and talkative during hypomania sometimes I was really nasty and used to screech away from my mums in the car if we argued which was most sundays my children used to really irritate me whereas now I'm really chilled and enjoy their company. I've really changed

Yep, I used to get the agitation and a short fuse with people, then I’d always regret it. Same with my DS too, although he’s only a toddler, but looking after a small child on top of having a mental illness is hard.

I’m feeling very hyper today. I’m
Hoping it’s jusy a passing phase and nothing to be worried about. I have drunk a lot of caffeine though so I’m going to blame it on that. And I keep listening to that song, what’s it called again give me that money. Just got paid one. Dancing about and I can stop laughing. Yep need to lay off the caffeine. And I have butterflies in my stomach areghhh! I feel fantastic but slightly unnerved at the same time 😬

My Facebook memories from 2012 keep popping up. You can tell I'm hypomanic from them. So embarrassing!

I joined a group that you were saying about and I joined a support group chat thing and now they’re saying I don’t have bipolar disorder and they think I have bpd. Which has just messed with my head. Now I feel like I’m not

And they said why do I have to do a running commentary on how I’m feeling and why do I have to tell them I’m hyper all day. And just stuff like that really.

So I think I’m going to stop my meds as they said it’s dangerous if you’re not bipolar

Which group have you joined Bippity and is it them telling you you've got BPD or the psychiatrist?

Then telling me

They’re saying I’m not bipolar

British bipolar support group

Is this a Facebook group? If so they're not qualified to diagnose you, nor to tell you to stop taking your medication. Please step away from the group and don't do anything about your meds until you've spoken to your psychiatrist.

Facebook groups can be pretty toxic when it comes to mental health.