u/1brownmouse

Hi everyone,

I have some form of bipolar, have been on lamictal for like...11 years now. I was pretty stable for a long time, but this last year and change has been ROUGH. A lot of ups and downs (mostly ups) that left me with very little "baseline" moments.

I'm on 200mg lamictal and when I started my "ups" last year I was put on 25mg quetiapine, plus prazosin 'cause my sleep has been trash (sleeping but sleep has never been restful). Over the last year I've had to increase to 100mg to get relief.

When I had my last meet-up with my prescriber, they suggested adding caplyta and reducing the quetiapine to "as needed". Reading the posts here make it sound like caplyta has made positive improvements for y'all, but it looks like it's for BP depression and not mania?

Do any of y'all have an experience with a med mix like this, or adding caplyta for stability specifically when the issue seems to be hypomania/mania?

Much appreciated for any info. I have a meeting with my prescriber next week so will address these concerns directly, too.

Thanks

I've never really slept well, but I do have "better" and "worse" sleep. Worse sleep means I'm like...awake but also asleep? Does anyone else feel like their thoughts/higher level function is somehow going even though they're also somehow asleep? It feels like my brain never fully turns off.

Hi everyone, I work in product management at a medium-size private company, and I hate my job. I have been in this role for 2 years and with the company for 3.5 years. My original role was in engineering, I moved to product management to increase my salary and specialize on a specific product family.

My department is mismanaged, overuses "other duties as assigned", has no department goals, key milestones, or salient picture for the future. I have no authority, no agency, and no purpose. As such, I was given the responsibilities of a second role.

I've been doing the 2nd role for a year now. Five months ago I told my direct boss I was not comfortable continuing with the without a title change or compensation shift. He told me there was no money, no room to create a role, and "we work the job we want, not the job we have." I told him I was interested in a future role that was more technical, he told me I didn't have the skillset. Dummy me, I continued to work the 2nd role because I thought it'd give me some of the experience I was apparently lacking.

Present day, my department is expanding! There is an open secret that we are building out new services, with new roles needed. On the side, people are being "tapped" to fill the roles. There are still no defined postions or concrete structure as far as I can tell. One of the roles seems to be slated at taking my 2nd role--the catch is, they've already tapped a few other people to fill it. I have not been included in any discussions about this, but it seems to be expected that I will be able to teach others (largely because no training exists and I taught myself how to use the technology).

We are supposed to have 1:1s every month with our bosses. My boss and I have not had a 1:1 this year--even if we did there are no defined metrics, goals, or feedback for me to discuss or enact. He is finally saying we should have a 1:1 next week, and I'm afraid of the questions he might ask. How do I approach this conversation when all I feel is fury? When I can't trust that he will give me accurate information or advocate on my behalf? Frankly, I'm a bit afraid voicing any dissatisfaction or boundaries will result in me being further relegated to meaningless paperwork.

I don't want to leave my job yet because a) health insurance and b) I have a family situation that requires job stability in the immediate future.

Any help or advice is appreciated.

I feel like every couple weeks I'm becoming hypomanic. Hard time paying attention, impulses to spend, energetic, very angry. I have some depressive symptoms after like a week. Has anyone experienced this? Is it rapid cycling? Ugh!