u/annastasia_rose

I am looking for a therapist and there are none in my area that specialize in bipolar. There are a few that have it listed but not under their main specialities. I struggled in therapy for 2 years before my bipolar diagnosis. It helped a bit with processing trauma but I did not realize that my severe depression was coming from bipolar disorder, so the work I did largely had no impact on my mood.

I want to be able to find someone who can help me recognize my symptoms, work through the shame after episodes, work on recognizing abnormal thought patterns, and someone who can recognize that my symptoms don’t all come from trauma. Has anyone had trouble with this as well? I have co occurring ADHD and it’s easier to find someone who specializes in ADHD but I haven’t found anyone who does both.

I have bipolar2, ADHD, and OCD. I recently got up to a therapeutic dose and I could cry about how much better I feel. I was severely mentally ill before this. It took up all my energy to barely make it through the day and survive. I so desperately wanted to get better and I knew what coping skills/ activities would help me. I was in therapy. But I simply could not get myself to engage in them. I finally feel capable of doing these things. It’s become so easily throughout the day to notice negative thought patterns, obsessive thought spirals, shame, etc, and I’m able to be mindful and shift to a healthier perspective. I actually feel happy. I feel calm and regulated. I am so sad that I spent years struggling so badly and missing out on life. I think I will be grieving for a while. To anyone else looking for hope- I hope this encourages you. The titration process of this medication can be rough- but it is well worth it if it is a good fit for you

(NAT) I am a patient seeking therapy and I am wondering if any therapists could share any tips on finding a therapist that would be a good fit or any potential green or red flags?

Hope this is okay to ask, thank you in advance :)

For context, I was recently diagnosed with OCD and a couple months ago I started seeing a therapist who specializes in OCD. Recently, I began experiencing what feels like intrusive sexual thoughts about my therapist. Sexual scenes or imagery of them, sometimes with me included, will pop into my head that make me super uncomfortable. It’s happened a couple times during our sessions and I’ve pushed it away. But now it’s happening more outside of our sessions, and I can’t figure out why I’m having these thoughts. It’s especially bad today. I’m so scared that I’m attracted to them, that I’m being creepy, or that I’ve already acted in a way to creep them out without being aware. They are married, and their sexual orientation is not attracted to my gender, so it makes it feel even more wrong, on top of the fact that they are of course my therapist and I do not want to feel attracted to them. I feel really predatory and I’m scared that this means I am attracted to my therapist.

When I’ve researched this the topic of transference comes up a lot. I don’t feel like transference makes sense since I just started seeing them, but I don’t know why I feel this way? I’m too embarrassed to bring this up to my therapist because I feel creepy.

I started seeing a new therapist a couple months ago, and right from the start they began sharing personal information about themselves, to a level that I am starting to feel uncomfortable with. In the first session they shared that they have the same diagnoses as me, what medications they take, questioned my medications and recommended me to try something similar to them. I have never asked them for any of this information or any of what I will share below.

Basically every time I share something I’m experiencing or going through they relate it back to themselves dealing with the same thing. I would say about half of the session involves them sharing about themselves. They use a lot of “people with our diagnoses like you and I tend to do ____” in a way that feels like they assume their experience is similar to mine and I find myself having to correct them if my experience is different. They share the struggles they are currently going through or have gone through in the past. I often find myself feeling like I don’t have enough time to express or talk about what I want to or feeling like I need to interrupt them to finish what I was trying to say, and like I am not able to go deeper in my processing because they relate it back to themselves instead of exploring my experience. The dynamic feels like one where we are more like friends rather than a client and therapist. I think they are probably coming from a place of trying to show me they understand me and relate to me to help me feel more comfortable, but I’m finding myself feeling rather disoriented and confused about how it’s causing me to feel. Im unsure if I am just being dramatic. I don’t want to bring it up because I don’t want to hurt their feelings, and I feel like if this is their style of therapy maybe I should quit and find someone else.

Here are some examples of things I know about them:
- Their diagnoses
- Their medications
- Their relationship status, and some issues they have gone through with their partner.
- Many instances of their own mental health struggles, including current ones.
- Physical health struggles they’ve gone through
- Types of other clients they have that they’ve found difficult/ hard to work with.

I know these may seem normal but it’s more so the way they share the information and how much they talk about it that is difficult for me. It feels as though they think they understand everything I’m going through and they think what worked for them will work for me. I find myself holding back on how I feel sometimes because knowing their experiences I don’t want to trigger them or I feel like they might disagree with me based off of things I know about them. I don’t feel like I’ve made any steps towards progress so far. I feel crazy, like maybe my expectations for therapy are abnormal?

(NAT)

I’ve seen people post that they’ve used this to help with chapped lips. Does it seem to work better than chapstick (I’m considering Dr dans cortibalm) or aquafor? I’m about to start accutane and I already normally struggle with dry lips so I am hoping to find something that works during my course!

I feel like my acne/ hirsutism has gotten so much worse since I got the mirena iud inserted. I think it’s because it’s progestin only so it can raise androgen levels. Is it a bad idea to have the iud if you have PCOS? Has anyone had this NOT happen?

I’m 26f. I’ve never struggled with acne until I started taking meds for my bipolar. It first seemed to appear when I started lithium and lamictil, then I stopped those meds and tried latuda and caplyta, and recently re started lamictil due to thinking maybe it wasn’t what caused the acne the first time. I also taking seroquel for sleep at that same time. My acne is worse than ever, but it also did not go away when I was taking latuda or caplyta. Ive tried several things from my dermatologist and none worked so my next option is accutane. I really don’t want to go on accutane but I feel out of options. My acne is severe and really affects my self esteem- I can hardly look at myself in the mirror, and I will probably have bad scarring. My dermatologist did not seem to think the lamictil could be causing the acne and my psychiatrist said it’s possible but not listed as a known side effect.

Is this a common experience?

My psychiatrist and dermatologist both don’t seem to think lamictil can cause acne but I swear it’s related. My acne is absolutely horrible now and I might have to go on accutane.

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I am 3 weeks into lamictil on 50 mg. Ever since starting my sleep is absolutely horrible. Even with taking my nightly low dose seroquel which normally knocks me out. I wake up what feels like every hour or more panicking from horrible vivid nightmares, and I’ll be anxious/ ruminating/ half awake for what feels like half the night. A lot of the time I wake up and can’t fall back asleep at all. I am extremely fatigued and exhausted. Has anyone had this happen and then get better over time?

I am a 26F, I’ve started and stopped lamotrigine a couple times, and I’ve developed horrible acne on my face- especially my jawline and neck, my back/ shoulders, and chest. I did still have acne when I went off of it so I thought maybe it was coming from something else so I decided to try it again but now it is getting worse than ever. My dermatologist does not seem to think it’s related to the lamictil but I swear it gets way worse when I take it. My psychiatrist said it’s not a reported side effect. I can’t seem to figure out how or why it would cause acne but I know I’m not the only one, I’ve seen others here post about it. I’m about to start accutane for it as nothing else has helped, but I’m scared it will come back after.

I’ve been sick for so long. For years now. I’ve fought to stay alive and it’s taken everything out of me. I’m completely and utterly exhausted. I am beaten down and broken.

Yesterday and today I took extra propranolol to try to hurt myself. I knew it wouldn’t be quite enough to cause serious harm, but I wanted to see what would happen. I’ve been on the ledge even more than normal for weeks now. I spend more than half my day thinking of ways to end my life, trying to find ways to manage the fear and guilt of it. The thing I’m most scared of is surviving.

I can’t go to the hospital because I work at the one in my area. I work in mental health and I’ve already been hospitalized a few years ago when I attempted. I still haven’t recovered from the shame. I gave my sister my gun a couple weeks ago when I told her I was suicidal and now I wish I hadn’t. I simply don’t know how to go on. A family friend died from suicide last month and I do not want to cause my family that harm, but I can’t fight anymore.

I am dealing with a bad flare right now and my bottom is so painful from all the diarrhea. In the past I’ve used aquafor but it didn’t seem to quite work well enough.

(NAT) I recently started seeing a therapist who shares a practice with their spouse, who is a psychiatric nurse practitioner. The therapist encouraged me to see their spouse for med management. The therapist told me that the only inconvenient part is not being able to schedule the appointments on the same day, because insurance will not cover both appointments. But then during my first appointment with the psychiatric NP, when we were scheduling for the next appointment- they offered to schedule me on a day where I already had therapy. I questioned if I would be able to do so, since I was told insurance would not cover both appointments if they were on the same day, and the psych NP told me “we can still schedule it on the same day but we just kinda have to go in on the official documentation and say that you had the appointment on a different day so that insurance will still cover the appointment” The way they discussed it made it seem like this is something they do regularly with their clients. It made me feel a little uneasy so I ended up scheduling the appointment for a different day. Am I just overthinking this, or is this a concern for potential fraud? I think they have good intentions and are just trying to make it convenient and easier for their clients, but it felt a little off to me.

I know the cut off for hypomania only has to be 4 days, but is it common for it to only last that long? I just recently had what (I think) was a hypomanic episode where I suddenly felt better, had a lot of energy and was cleaning my whole house, felt confident and sure of myself, felt like I had the answers to all my problems, felt impulsive and had an increased desire for substances, decreased appetite, I struggled to sleep, and I thought I was finally feeling better. It lasted for about 5 days. I was questioning if I was hypomanic during it but I enjoyed it and didn’t want it to stop, I thought maybe I was just finally feeling better. Then I crashed back into my depression and feel the exact opposite. Now I’m confused on if I was actually hypomanic or if Im just making up or exaggerating my symptoms. I also have OCD so I have a really hard time knowing what is a true episode and what is me just me over thinking my moods. (I go through times where I convince myself I have psychosis or schizophrenia when I don’t) I’m not sure if this is worth bringing up to my psych provider since it already ended and I worry that I am just exaggerating. Does anyone else have this short of hypomanic episodes?

I have bipolar2. I’ve been on 25 mg for a couple weeks now, and a few days ago I went from being severely depressed to suddenly feeling like everything is completely fine, cleaning my entire house, having a hard time sleeping, I have no appetite, I’m thinking about how to get my life together, I feel motivated and weirdly calm/ clear. I also have this weird feeling of extreme boredom, things that I normally get dopamine from like watching TV or going on TikTok are extremely boring and I feel like I need to find something to give me stimulation/ excitement. I’m not sure if this is hypomania, I’m still getting tired- just having I hard time sleeping for more than a couple hours. I know at 25mg the med is not going to help depression at all yet but could it cause hypomania?

I just started 25mg a couple weeks ago and I’m struggling with bad nightmares/ vivid dreams, waking up throughout the night, being a half awake ruminating anxiously, and waking up drenched in sweat. I already take seroquel to help me sleep and normally it knocks me out, but now it’s like it does nothing. Has anyone had this side effect go away after they got to a stable dose?

I’ve been extremely depressed, agitated, anxious, and suicidal for the past couple months. Yesterday I started feeling more amped up than normal, after only getting two hours of sleep the night before. Today, I suddenly noticed I feel like everything is fine and that I don’t feel like I have any issues anymore. I had a family friend pass away within the last couple weeks and I was sad about it but now I literally can’t feel sad at all, it feels like I don’t care. I am having a lot more easy time at work smiling and talking to my coworkers. I feel giddy. Still anxious but in a more energized kind of way. I woke up this morning not tired at all and wanting to clean my room. I’m finding people more attractive than normal. I think I might be entering hypomania but I also feel like I might just be over thinking things. I have an appointment on Friday with my psych provider so Im thinking of bringing it up then, but part of me does not want to go to that appointment, or my therapy appointment tomorrow. I don’t know if I’m just starting to feel better from my depression or if I’m hypomanic? I’ve been questioning my bipolar diagnosis for a while now. What if I’m just exaggerating?

I’ve heard it’s common to question your diagnosis when hypomanic or when meds are working and you feel better, but for me, it gets really bad when I’m depressed. I’ve fallen into a very very deep depression for the last few months and I seriously almost 100% think I do not have bipolar anymore. I feel like the reason why I’m struggling so badly is just because I’m just not trying hard enough, that I’m lazy, stupid, overly emotional, basically that my depression is just “regular” depression, and I’m just not doing a good job at managing it. Last year I was on lamictil and it helped a lot, when I was doing better I was able to look back and see how severe my depression was and I felt so much better that it was easy for me to recognize that I had bipolar. But it’s like I can’t even access that mindset anymore. I feel like I made up all my hypomania symptoms, that I somehow tricked my psychiatrist into diagnosing me, and that I am just a horrible person. I feel like maybe it was a coincidence that I felt better while on lamictil. I was also recently diagnosed with ocd so I keep wondering if I actually just convinced myself I have bipolar due to ocd, because a part of my ocd is feeling convinced that I have health issues.

I bought what is supposed to be a high quality fish oil supplement and the reviews said it does not taste / smell like fish but I opened the bottle and it is so bad I want to gag. Please put recs in the comments