gcvmom
Here we go again!
So you all probably know I'm convinced husband has a mood disorder. Maybe not full-blown BiPolar (BP), but definitely cyclothymic or something in the BiPolar (BP) spectrum. And he's a lot more pleasant to be around in the past year since he's been on Paxil and even more so since starting Lamictal.
husband's birthday was the weekend before last. He was reasonably chipper and festive that weekend and even in the days leading up to it, but yikes was he ever grumpy and withdrawn the rest of the week! It's like he crashed hard after the high of all the excitement. He had no energy, just wanted to sleep all the time and complained(s) of not sleeping well.
It wasn't until this Saturday when we went to Disneyland for his company picnic that he seemed to come out of his funk. Sunday comes, and as we'd discussed earlier in the week, he set out to clean out the rafters of the garage. Only he drags EVERYTHING out to the driveway and LEAVES it there. We're talking 18 years of boxes and boxes of boxes and odds and ends, old window blinds, curtain rods, electrical pvc pipe, spare lumber, fishing gear, memorabilia, stuffed animals, baskets, bike racks... you get the picture.
He worked on it a bit more this evening, bringing the rest of the junk down and then putting some old doors we'd had stashed on the side yard up into the rafters to serve as shelves for whatever we end up putting back up there. He wants to have a garage sale. Which is fine with me. But there is so much stuff that has to be sorted through first... my neighbors drive by very curious about all the stuff piled up. We can't even close the garage door because it's all half in and out.
But I digress.... the other strange thing I've noticed is that he's been very outgoing with strangers lately. He'll strike up conversation with just about anyone who makes eye contact with him. He usually tries to say something funny or does something to get a reaction out of them. Sometimes it's funny, but sometimes it borders on nosiness, or just plain obnoxiousness and I have to bite my lip to keep from telling him to be quiet. It's like he doesn't see that he's stepped over the line of being friendly and now he's just being intrusive. Before he was on Lamictal, he never would have opened up like this. I find myself trying to redirect his behavior like I do with the kids! Sheesh!
I'm just wondering if this is sort of hypomania? Could the Paxil be exacerbating this? He doesn't seem any worse than he was before -- I just think maybe I see it more because he's not angry and irritable like before.
Before Lamictal, he'd still have these high energy periods (like deciding he wanted a brick-on-sand walkway down the length of our 100 foot-long yard in January and setting up lights so he could work on it every night after work until 11:00pm!), but he'd be grumpy and have a short fuse most of the time, and he'd have moderate rages as well (like the time he had a meltdown in the car because the kids were making noise and as his screaming peaked he just parked the truck and left storming down the road at 11pm in the middle of nowhere -- actually about 3 miles outside a mountain town. I sat with three very scared little kids for about 30 minutes, debating on whether to continue on to our cabin another 15 miles up the road and leave him there to fend for himself (and risk more rage), or to go looking for him and try to calm him down.)
He's still having trouble sleeping. Says it's like he can't turn his head off sometimes.
Good news is he may have a psychiatrist appointment on Wednesday (first time in about 7 years). Bad news is I won't be able to go to help fill in the gaps
husband's birthday was the weekend before last. He was reasonably chipper and festive that weekend and even in the days leading up to it, but yikes was he ever grumpy and withdrawn the rest of the week! It's like he crashed hard after the high of all the excitement. He had no energy, just wanted to sleep all the time and complained(s) of not sleeping well.
It wasn't until this Saturday when we went to Disneyland for his company picnic that he seemed to come out of his funk. Sunday comes, and as we'd discussed earlier in the week, he set out to clean out the rafters of the garage. Only he drags EVERYTHING out to the driveway and LEAVES it there. We're talking 18 years of boxes and boxes of boxes and odds and ends, old window blinds, curtain rods, electrical pvc pipe, spare lumber, fishing gear, memorabilia, stuffed animals, baskets, bike racks... you get the picture.
He worked on it a bit more this evening, bringing the rest of the junk down and then putting some old doors we'd had stashed on the side yard up into the rafters to serve as shelves for whatever we end up putting back up there. He wants to have a garage sale. Which is fine with me. But there is so much stuff that has to be sorted through first... my neighbors drive by very curious about all the stuff piled up. We can't even close the garage door because it's all half in and out.
But I digress.... the other strange thing I've noticed is that he's been very outgoing with strangers lately. He'll strike up conversation with just about anyone who makes eye contact with him. He usually tries to say something funny or does something to get a reaction out of them. Sometimes it's funny, but sometimes it borders on nosiness, or just plain obnoxiousness and I have to bite my lip to keep from telling him to be quiet. It's like he doesn't see that he's stepped over the line of being friendly and now he's just being intrusive. Before he was on Lamictal, he never would have opened up like this. I find myself trying to redirect his behavior like I do with the kids! Sheesh!
I'm just wondering if this is sort of hypomania? Could the Paxil be exacerbating this? He doesn't seem any worse than he was before -- I just think maybe I see it more because he's not angry and irritable like before.
Before Lamictal, he'd still have these high energy periods (like deciding he wanted a brick-on-sand walkway down the length of our 100 foot-long yard in January and setting up lights so he could work on it every night after work until 11:00pm!), but he'd be grumpy and have a short fuse most of the time, and he'd have moderate rages as well (like the time he had a meltdown in the car because the kids were making noise and as his screaming peaked he just parked the truck and left storming down the road at 11pm in the middle of nowhere -- actually about 3 miles outside a mountain town. I sat with three very scared little kids for about 30 minutes, debating on whether to continue on to our cabin another 15 miles up the road and leave him there to fend for himself (and risk more rage), or to go looking for him and try to calm him down.)
He's still having trouble sleeping. Says it's like he can't turn his head off sometimes.
Good news is he may have a psychiatrist appointment on Wednesday (first time in about 7 years). Bad news is I won't be able to go to help fill in the gaps
