u/Evening_Fisherman810

Do you think that allowing yourself to have episodes has led to more episodes and/or more severe episodes? Like the kindling theory?

Does anyone know? I have read differing things.

If you think you are a high functioning person with bipolar, why do you think you are able to function so well? What contributes to it? Have you always been this way?

I think I just grew accustomed to the way my brain worked when I was unmedicated, even though that meant it was messed up a lot of the time. Even my sleep cycle was drastically different, but I learned to live with it.

I know being medicated is better for me. I just am not comfortable with it yet. I haven't adjusted to this as my "new normal" because in the past I would go off my medication regularly.

Does anyone else struggle with the adjustment to medicated life, not because it is worse but just because it is different?

And does it have to do with Bipolar Disorder?

Is there a disorder for when someone obsesses over thinking they have a mental illness?

How long was it? Why were you admitted? Was it voluntary or involuntary? Did it ultimately help?

I'm always curious about other people's hospitalizations because I'm always so conflicted about my own.

I know the easy answer is that it won't happen if you just keep taking your medication.

But some of us (me specifically) struggle to stay on medication. Even though I'm 100% compliant right now and have been for nearly a year, I know I will inevitably go off my medication again in the future.

Still, I am terrified of being trapped into treatment. Of not having a say in what goes in my body. A CTO would be devastating for me.

Does anyone else have this fear?

Where do you land? Are you usually closer to schizophrenic or closer to bipolar. I know it can switch at times, but what would be your "norm"?

In honor of Mother's Day, I would love to hear what makes you a great Mom, even through the struggles of Bipolar.

In my quest to find a weight neutral antipsychotic that actually works for me, my psychiatrist has finally agreed to let me try Geodon. He hasn't had much luck with it in his practice, but he is still letting me try it. We are starting really slow and I am staying on my current antipsychotic, loxapine, while I try it.

Wish me luck!

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Basically the question. The medications that work for me make me gain weight. When I go off them, I lose all the weight no problem, so it isn't like I don't know how to lose weight. I am thinking of going off my medication to just lose some weight again but each time I've done that my mental health has paid me back with psychosis. Still, I don't know if I'm willing to watch my body get destroyed.

Basically the question. The medications that work for me make me gain weight. When I go off them, I lose all the weight no problem, so it isn't like I don't know how to lose weight. I am thinking of going off my medication to just lose some weight again but each time I've done that my mental health has paid me back with psychosis. Still, I don't know if I'm willing to watch my body get destroyed.

I just got out of a long depression and I am stable, but I am finding that I am really frustrated and irritated by all the injustices that have happened in my medical history. These things include:

• A cult-like IOP that nearly destroyed me years ago
• A BPD misdiagnosis (made in 15 minutes with no clinical evidence for it)
• A comment by an ER psych on a medico-legal form that I was a risk to my child simply because I was suicidal (no other reasons, I even went to the regulator over it, and they sided with the physician because I could have deteriorated and become a risk which is BS in my opinion - I have always been an attentive and caring parent)
• A nurse who threatened to restrain me for crying. Yup, for crying - I wasn't violent or verbally abusive, I was just sitting on the floor in the isolation cell, crying.
• And a few things with my own psychiatrist who I actually adore, but we didn't see eye to eye on - not as big as the above things, just little disagreements.

I am just feeling so betrayed by the medical industry. When this happens, I tend to go off my medications. I'm trying to separate these instances as being in the past, trying not to let them influence my present, but it is difficult.

I once read an article that was aimed at physicians that basically said that when bipolar doesn't respond to a few medications, one should assume a misdiagnosis.

What do you think? When do you think a diagnosis should be revisited/another opinion sought out if medication isn't working?

If someone has BPD can they make up their mind to stop self harming and just do it, no questions asked, no extra therapy, nothing?

I have Bipolar disorder but they used to think I had BPD because I self harmed. Once I realized self harm was stigmatized so badly, I just decided to stop doing it. I'm wondering if that is possible in BPD?

What side effects of psychiatric medications are you currently dealing with?

For me it is weight gain, acne and fatigue. Just imagine an overweight, pimply, yawning woman and you have just pictured me!

Like you can feel it bubbling under the surface, but you can also feel the medication squashing it down? It isn't because of any event or anything, just the way you feel for awhile?

That's been me this week. I miss it a little bit so I sort of wish I wasn't on medication, but I know better.

This is stupid, but I am scared of developing a goiter because I take Lithium. I guess it is fairly common, like up to 10% of users. I know one of my psychiatrists did say that it was almost guaranteed that I would develop hypothyroidism if I take it for a long time (which is the plan), and I know hypothyroidism often causes goiter development.

Stupid worry, I know. Still, it bothers me.