Recently Diagnosed and prescribed meds, but I don't feel like I need them or really am Bipolar

I’ve been diagnosed for almost 3 years and I still feel sometimes I’m not bipolar because we have periods of stability. I think that’s common for a lot of us. But I had to do a worksheet test once in a bipolar meeting in a hospital and I scored one of the highest in the group.

The meds helped so much. You’ll miss the hypomania sometimes, but you’ll have so much more balanced energy from regulated sleep. I stopped having psychotic episodes literally within 1-2 days of starting antipsychotics.

In the beginning I was taking about 6 pills/day to manage severe symptoms that had gone unchecked for too long. Once those were treated, I stopped taking antipsychotics and trazodone because my stabilizer (Lamictal for me) had stabilized my brain enough that I wasn’t having extreme stress and delusions, losing sleep etc. I’m down to 2 pills for bipolar now (lamictal & Wellbutrin, low doses) but it had to start with a bunch at first and HIGHish doses to reach a certain regular blood level to start changes.

I spent like a year denying I was bipolar and my therapist was very worried. When I made an appointment for a psychiatrist he couldn’t believe I had made it through a year of basically hallucinations, no sleep for 4 days at a time, wildly irrational actions. Now I graduated school and have a great f/t corporate job and zero symptoms, except maybe 1-2 minor episodes per year. I’m so glad you went to a doctor. Remember to research the meds you are taking and talk to your doc about the drug symptoms you can’t live with.

/r/bipolar Thread