u/Puzzleheaded_Air_34

Is there any way to deal with bipolar 1 without constant medication?

I saw someone on instagram say that they have strict lifestyle rules about sleep schedules and daily schedules, etc. and that they use fast-acting medicine when they feel like they're starting to get manic, but the comments were mostly negative.

I had my first Official Manic Episode (ft. psychosis) last year in April, and I've been mostly unmedicated for the last 3 months and I've felt fine.

I've just had really bad side effects from medicine cognitively and I've tried a few different medicines that are supposed to have the least impact already (i couldn't think properly on any of them). I'm a physics major at a top engineering college, so I really need to be able to think critically.

Does anyone on here not use daily medication? What non-medicine things do you do to keep yourself out of a manic episode? Would you suggest it in my scenario?

EDIT:

Ok guys I get it but the thing is I don’t even think I actually have bipolar. I know everyone says that!!!

But I was abusing adderall and vyvanse pretty consistently before I had my manic episode and during part of it before I knew what was going on with me.

My doctor said “that will only bring your bipolar out it can’t cause a manic episode if you don’t already have bipolar” but that sounds so stupid to me and I’ve heard so many people say that bipolar is misdiagnosed so much because people ignore the circumstances, which I feel like is EXACTLY what is going on!!!

Looked on internet to find code for unbounce back to top button and none of it worked so here is one that works. I couldn't get it to show up after you scroll a certain amount on the screen so this just makes it visible the whole time. I'm sure someone who is better at javascript could figure it out pretty easily but i just used CSS for this.

Paste this into stylesheets and change the button id to your button id:

oh and make sure the button has the section id of your top section set up so it actually works when you click it

<style> 
#lp-pom-button-538 {
     position: fixed !important;
     bottom: 20px !important;
     right: 20px !important;
     left: auto !important;
     top: auto !important;
     z-index: 99999 !important;
} 
</style> 

I was diagnosed last year with Bipolar 1 after a psychotic break and manic episode. I had never experienced either of these before, and I was really scared. I've heard bipolar disorder can develop around the time you turn into an adult due to brain development or environmental triggers, or something like that. Anyways, they initially thought I had Bipolar 2 and put me on some weird medicine (I forget which one, some mood stabilizer) along with SSRIs. I'm sure most of you in the BPD community see the problem here. For those who don't know, SSRIs can cause crazy manic episodes and make things worse. I ended up in the psych ward. When I was there, they put me on a medicine for BP 1 after I talked to the doctors and they saw my symptoms. I've been on at least 3 medications since then (olanzapine, lamictal, topamax, something else I think).

These medicines, especially lybalvi (a mix of olanzapine and samidorphan), made me have terrible brain fog, and I didn't feel like myself at all. I'm in college, and I was really having problems remembering things for classes, which is a huge problem since I go to a good University with hard classes. I literally felt like a shell of a human; I lost my spark. I was having a hard time making friends because I wasn't funny/witty like I used to be.

I stopped taking my medicine about 2 or three weeks ago because I was worried about not being able to remember things for my finals. Since I stopped taking it, I have felt so much better. I have been able to do well on my finals so far, I have been able to make witty jokes, and I have been able to kill it on the minute cryptics (which I couldn't do before because I literally couldn't think critically). I have felt fantastic and don't want to get back on my meds when I go home this summer, or ever if that's possible.

Why I am worried: I've heard that when bipolar people are on medication for a while, there's a period of stability after you stop them and then the episodes get worse. I know that manic episodes are extremely terrible for your brain and can cause Alzheimer's or other declines in cognitive function. I've also been sleeping poorly over the past few nights (about 3-4 hours), but I could attribute that to stress from finals, as I've always had trouble sleeping. My main concern with the sleep thing is that I haven't been tired at all during the day, which was not true for me before I developed bipolar.

Since I've been fine after I stopped my medicine, I'm thinking I could've even been misdiagnosed as bipolar. I've heard that autism often gets misdiagnosed as bipolar, and I do have autism. I also know that it could be genetic factors, since my aunt is schizophrenic. Major depressive disorder can cause mania in some cases. Extreme stress. Sleep deprivation. I don't know. Maybe I'm just trying to convince myself I'm not bipolar because it is so hard to live with this condition, and I don't want that for myself.

I would like to hear what you guys think. If you think I should get back on my medicine, if you think I should look into another diagnosis, if you think I'm naive for thinking I can manage bipolar 1 without medication. Whatever you think. Let me know, please.