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General Parenting
difficult child diagnosis'd with BiPolar (BP) II, question about some medication suggestions...
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<blockquote data-quote="BusynMember" data-source="post: 577096" data-attributes="member: 1550"><p>I'd encourage her to see a neurologist again.</p><p></p><p>As for mood stabilizers, I think if you have real bipolar, as in manic psychosis, you have no choice but to take them, but I know people with bipolar I who quit because of that foggy, unreal feeling too. I just know that parents who have never taken these medications often do not understand why their difficult child's stop taking them. I'm betting that most of the time the side effects are just intolerable, worse than the psychiatric illness. I do think some of that is from psychiatrists who insist on raising doses until they are so high that the person can no longer think straight. I've been there. I've gone off medications because it's scary to feel so out of it. In the lithium saga, I kept telling the doctor I felt like I wasn't even real, like I was walking in a dream. He said it was "anxiety" and kept upping the dose, which made it worse. I was so drugged, I could barely remember my name. When I finally quit cold turkey, which I now know you aren't supposed to do but am not sure I would have done differently anyway, I waited three days, Lithium free, and suddenly was clearheaded as ever and not even depressed anymore. I took my butt to a new psychiatrist who did a lithium level on me. It was 1.6, which was extremely high...toxic for somebody who, at the time, was only 96 pounds and sensitive to medication. This was the level after three days of not even taking Lithium. I never took it again. I tried tegretal once, noticed the same dreamlike sensation, and threw it out. </p><p></p><p>Part of the medications problem is how psychiatrists prescribe them. They tend to overmedicate. It never occurs to them that maybe the drug is causing the problem. Instead of ever trying to lower a dose, thinking perhaps a person is drugged up, they tend to up the doses or flip medications so that the person remains overmedicated. I had to monitor medications on my own once I learned this. I refuse to take anything if it drugs me up. Period. I decide what I take and what I don't take, not based on stubbornness, but based on how a medication makes me feel. I am only too aware of how psychiatrists tend to prescribe too many drugs to one person. Overmedication feels horrible and is no better than no medications at all. </p><p></p><p>I am not your daughter, b ut it sounds like this weird dreamy "I-am-not-really-alive" feeling is why she quit her medication. I've been in the phospital three times and we patients used to talk about the medications and this spacey feeling. It is a huge reason why many psychiatric patients become non-compliant. Family members who have never been on them, just don't understand how awful they can feel. Many times they think we are just being difficult children, refusing to help ourselves. That is sometimes the case, I'm sure, but it is also often how bad the medications make us feel. Self-medication often feels better because WE are in control of how drugged we are! I never did self-medicate, but I do understand why some people would rather control their own alcohol or pot doses than take heavy duty psychiatric medications that sometimes don't help and that also have major side effects. I do get it.</p><p></p><p> It's a very delicate art to finding the right medications and the right doses. It took me almost fifteen years to find medications that actually worked. It doesn't happen overnight. </p><p></p><p>I feel for you; I feel for your daughter. Take care.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BusynMember, post: 577096, member: 1550"] I'd encourage her to see a neurologist again. As for mood stabilizers, I think if you have real bipolar, as in manic psychosis, you have no choice but to take them, but I know people with bipolar I who quit because of that foggy, unreal feeling too. I just know that parents who have never taken these medications often do not understand why their difficult child's stop taking them. I'm betting that most of the time the side effects are just intolerable, worse than the psychiatric illness. I do think some of that is from psychiatrists who insist on raising doses until they are so high that the person can no longer think straight. I've been there. I've gone off medications because it's scary to feel so out of it. In the lithium saga, I kept telling the doctor I felt like I wasn't even real, like I was walking in a dream. He said it was "anxiety" and kept upping the dose, which made it worse. I was so drugged, I could barely remember my name. When I finally quit cold turkey, which I now know you aren't supposed to do but am not sure I would have done differently anyway, I waited three days, Lithium free, and suddenly was clearheaded as ever and not even depressed anymore. I took my butt to a new psychiatrist who did a lithium level on me. It was 1.6, which was extremely high...toxic for somebody who, at the time, was only 96 pounds and sensitive to medication. This was the level after three days of not even taking Lithium. I never took it again. I tried tegretal once, noticed the same dreamlike sensation, and threw it out. Part of the medications problem is how psychiatrists prescribe them. They tend to overmedicate. It never occurs to them that maybe the drug is causing the problem. Instead of ever trying to lower a dose, thinking perhaps a person is drugged up, they tend to up the doses or flip medications so that the person remains overmedicated. I had to monitor medications on my own once I learned this. I refuse to take anything if it drugs me up. Period. I decide what I take and what I don't take, not based on stubbornness, but based on how a medication makes me feel. I am only too aware of how psychiatrists tend to prescribe too many drugs to one person. Overmedication feels horrible and is no better than no medications at all. I am not your daughter, b ut it sounds like this weird dreamy "I-am-not-really-alive" feeling is why she quit her medication. I've been in the phospital three times and we patients used to talk about the medications and this spacey feeling. It is a huge reason why many psychiatric patients become non-compliant. Family members who have never been on them, just don't understand how awful they can feel. Many times they think we are just being difficult children, refusing to help ourselves. That is sometimes the case, I'm sure, but it is also often how bad the medications make us feel. Self-medication often feels better because WE are in control of how drugged we are! I never did self-medicate, but I do understand why some people would rather control their own alcohol or pot doses than take heavy duty psychiatric medications that sometimes don't help and that also have major side effects. I do get it. It's a very delicate art to finding the right medications and the right doses. It took me almost fifteen years to find medications that actually worked. It doesn't happen overnight. I feel for you; I feel for your daughter. Take care. [/QUOTE]
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difficult child diagnosis'd with BiPolar (BP) II, question about some medication suggestions...
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