Posted by runamuck on March 12, 2007, at 21:29:44
Hi everyone!
I'm 28 and was diagnosed with Bi-polar disorder and ADD after and interesting turn of events. My gyno put me on Paxil, Zoloft, and Celexa for high blood pressure that she thought was due to anxiety. Each med met with the same disastrous results, 3 days of euphoria then I wanted to scream at everything and everyone, oh, and I wasn't sleeping at all. She wanted to keep trying other stuff, but I knew better and went straight to the psychiatrist. I've always had issues with depression and the agitation and lack of sleepiness I felt on the antidepressants was reminiscent of a few bad times in my life (coincided with freaking out during student teaching and when I got fired from my job, surprise, surprise) so the bi-polar was disappointing, but not a big surprise. I never thought I had ADD, I thought everyone just had motivational issues like me. I've always had fairly decent grades, but teachers kept saying I wasn't living up to my full potential. I really wish I would have been diagnosed earlier, but at least now I know.
I've been/am still on a lot of meds. If you are interested here's the list:
Have been on, but ended up switching off of: risperdal (didn't work as a mood stabilizer), concerta (ok, but not as good as Adderal), focalin (I felt drugged and tired), Provigil (didn't work - see below) and many antidepressants that made me hypo-manic (I apparently have bi-polar type II)Now I'm on:
Adderall, 20 mg 2x daily (it wears off on me after 5 hours--but is otherwise all around awesome!)
Abilify-- this stuff has been EVIL! It made me so tired and fuzzy headed my Dr. prescribed Provigal (I didn't know the abilify was the issue), but even that didn't work. I decided to go off cold turkey since I was depressed and obviously wasn't having a manic issue. BIG MISTAKE! about a week later I had uncontrollable facial tics--I mean making wild faces and violently shaking my head to one side. Really scary. I called my Doc and he said to go back on the meds. I was on 15mg but now I'm down to 2. I'm less tired but I can't wait to be off of this drug! Hopefully since I'm weaning off slowly the tics won't come back--fingers crossed.
Lamictal - 150 mg - this seems to keep the mania under control but I'm still having depression issues :(
Cymbalta - the only antidepressant that worked for me while on the risperdal, but it's freaking expensive since it's off formulary. I've lowered my dose to 30mg and am hoping to go off of it soon.
Welbutrin - I took this while on the risperdal and went straight to hypo-mania. I'm trying it again and have been on it for a week--so far so good!
The high blood pressure turned out to be a real issue so I'm on meds for that and allergies.
I've been fired from two jobs (one of which I totally loved) because of my issues. I now have a stable job that pays less - it's totally boring and I keep looking for a new one without luck. But, I just got a part time job teaching making more $ and actually doing something I like so I'm pretty excited. I also have a great boyfriend, so all in all, things are going ok for me. I'm on here to hopefully get some advice during the bad times, and to be supportive of others as well. Thanks for reading!
poster:runamuck
thread:740541
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/newbs/20061013/msgs/740541.html