Bipolar Frustrations » Coping With Side Effects http://bipolarfrustrations.com Thu, 17 May 2012 03:02:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Rapid Cycling Within Bipolar is Not Healthy http://bipolarfrustrations.com/rapid-cycling-bipolar-2/ http://bipolarfrustrations.com/rapid-cycling-bipolar-2/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:39:48 +0000 admin http://bipolarfrustrations.com/?p=195 Bipolar disorder, unbeknownst to most, can occur in many different ways. One of these ways is through rapid cycling.

Rapid cycling is a pattern of symptoms in bipolar disorder. In rapid cycling, a person with bipolar disorder experiences four or more episodes of mania or depression in one year (1a).

Six million people develop bipolar disorder in the US today. Of those people, about 10% to 20% of people with bipolar disorder have rapid cycling. People with bipolar II disorder are more likely to experience rapid cycling (1b).

Most people are in their late teens or early 20s when symptoms first start. Men tend to develop it earlier than women. People with an immediate family member with bipolar disorder are at higher risk.

Rapid cycling bipolar disorder can be difficult to diagnose. Rapid cycling may seem to make bipolar disorder more obvious, but because most people with rapid cycling bipolar disorder spend far more time depressed than manic or hypomanic, they are often misdiagnosed with “just” depression. For example, in one study of people with bipolar II disorder, the amount of time spent depressed was more than 35 times the amount of time spent hypomanic (1c). One important note is that hypomanic symptoms aren’t often documented, since periods of increased stamina, appreciation, productivity, and social performance aren’t often perceived as a problem.

Since an individual’s experience is more closely dominated by symptoms of depression, course of treatment is usually directed at relieving depression (1d).

Treatment is usually consisting of prescription medicine. What makes matters worse is that antidepressants such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft can reduce depression in rapid cycling bipolar disorder. However, taking antidepressants alone can actually increase the degree of rapid cycling, and also trigger manic episodes (1e). Thus mood stabilizers are administered to counter-act these side effects. Does anyones else see a problem with this?

Citations:

1: http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/guide/rapid-cycling-bipolar-disorder?page=1

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]]> http://bipolarfrustrations.com/rapid-cycling-bipolar-2/feed/ 0 My sister http://bipolarfrustrations.com/my-sister/ http://bipolarfrustrations.com/my-sister/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:06:17 +0000 hallie http://bipolarfrustrations.com/?p=31 The thing I hate most about my mental illness is how it affects the relationships I have with those I love. I have a younger sister, she’s eight and I’m twenty two. I don’t go home much anymore, I have an apartment so I don’t need to. I miss my family terribly and they only live twenty minutes away. I especially miss my sister, who I would do anything for. However, I’m too afraid to go home, fearing I’ll have an episode there, she is too young to understand what’s going on and she looks up to me. I would rather be a wonderful idea/memory to her than something that is confusing and frustrating currently. When she gets a little older I won’t be so distant because she’ll be able to understand better,but i don’t want to put her through something like this now, I love her too much for that, I would rather remove myself from her life at the moment and love her from afar than put her through this. I hope she’ll understand when she’s older and hope beyond hope she’s been spared having a mental illness herself. I don’t want her to go through what I’ve gone through and am going through.

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]]> http://bipolarfrustrations.com/my-sister/feed/ 2 Help Across the Board http://bipolarfrustrations.com/help-across-the-board/ http://bipolarfrustrations.com/help-across-the-board/#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:34:55 +0000 hallie http://bipolarfrustrations.com/?p=28 Two things that I’ve found which help across the board of mental illnesses independent of medicine and therapy are having a daily routine and regular exercise. Another thing that seems to help is to force yourself to do the things you used to love or be interested in like hobbies and friends. This is especially true with depression and bipolar.  Basically, what helps me the most when I’m depressed or on the verge of having a mood swing is to pull myself out of myself for a while and focus on something else. I know that sometimes this isn’t possible but when it is, one shouldn’t wallow in themselves, that just makes things worse.  It’s my belief and experience that it’s important to be proactive with mental illness and to not just lay down and take it, mainly because once you’re down, it is so very very hard to get back up and the illness will just keep beating on you regardless of if you take it standing or laying down. The only difference is that when taking it standing up you have more control, in that sometimes one can dodge the blows and determine how they will react to the ones that actually connect, while when taking it laying down, one just gets repeatedly pummeled. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of getting beat up and taking it laying down, I want to stand again and that takes more than medicine or therapy, that takes a conscious decision and a lot of internal struggle, but it’s more than worth it in my book.

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]]> http://bipolarfrustrations.com/help-across-the-board/feed/ 1 Coping with Insomnia http://bipolarfrustrations.com/coping-with-insomnia/ http://bipolarfrustrations.com/coping-with-insomnia/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:22:19 +0000 hallie http://bipolarfrustrations.com/?p=14 One of the side effects of the medication I’m on is periodic insomnia and restlessness.  Sometimes I wake up and just have to take a walk at five in the morning, or I wake up and it takes hours to get back to sleep.  There are a few things I do that help me clam down and get back to sleep: taking a walk, taking a warm bath, drinking chamomile tea, taking some Valerian root or taking a Trazodone.

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