So hard to find a good med

[maybeimadreamer]

I have bipolar type 2 and just need to have a bit of a rant. At the moment I am off meds, waiting to start a new lot and hoping that this will be the one that works. I have tried so many and they have all had side affects that make life even more difficult to cope with.

So I'm wondering what meds work for you? I am kind of interested to see how

Comments

[mplsindygirl]

I've had similar problems for various reasons. Been on lots of medications. I have bipolar 1 with rapid cycling. I've found my life, and my weight, is mostly manageable on a small dose of sertraline combined with risperidone. I still cycle up to hypomania now and then, and have mild depressive periods, especially in winter. But I can work through those times with therapy and exercise and eating as well as I can.

I've experienced a horrible rash with Lamictal - not SJ, but still had to go on Prednisone to counteract the allergic response.
Also, experience the digestive issues you have, but once I quit drinking milk and eating ice cream (hard cheeses seem ok), that helped. I have a lot of food and drug allergies.

[dangerduckie21]

I liked lamictal but it didn't help with mania and then I got a rash and my doctor refuses to prescribe it to me. Even though it was a ridiculously tiny rash.

I gained a few pants sizes on risperdal (which is similar to seroquel). I guess that's pretty common, but it helps, so I keep taking it. It also makes my periods go away, which I think is an awesome side effect.

They gave me lithium as a kid and it just made me cry, according to my mom, I don't remember this.

Tegretal helped with mania but not depression, and it made me way too sleepy during the day (the biggest problem I have with several meds.) I just stopped taking it. Now I take trazadone for sleep, with risperdal and effexor. however, I've been stuck in this depression for a long time and I've tried so many things that haven't worked, that my doctor wants me to get ect. I'm very frustrated with how the meds don't work, I don't get many physical effects but they mess me up mentally and ultimately I'm taking a combo that works only partially.

[gemmagic]

I was diagnosed at 19 (I am now) 29. I currently take Zyprexa (drug name olanzapine) and Cipramil (drug name citalopram). I take Cipramil to help me in the mornings, and the Zyprexa helps me sleep at night. The Zyprexa makes me a bit tired (nothing a cup of coffee doesn't fix) and hungry (I can snack on healthy foods if I get the munchies). I am about 10 kilos heavier than I probably would be if I were not on the meds, but then again if I didn't take them I could die. Also, there are people heavier than me who take no meds.

In the past I tried risperadone and sodium valproate, which I was put on when first diagnosed. They made me super sleepy and hungry and I had a 15kg weight gain within a few months.

I also tried lithium, which made me feel continuously sick in the tummy and gave me an outbreak of dandruff which went away when I stopped it. It also gave me toxicity and I ended up in hospital because I was still super depressed on it anyway.

Taking meds and dealing with side effects is crap, but once you get on the right medication/s

[nakedfaery]

Lamictal is the only drug that has really worked for me. There are side effects, such as acne, but for the most part they're bearable.

I tried Seroquel, reacted really badly to that, ended up in the hospital after a 50mg dose made me collapse in the queue at the bank.

Next was Zyprexa, which really massively increased my aggression levels and made me gain a butt ton of weight, which was very triggering for me.

Risperidone caused constant lactation and no periods, really fucked up my hormones and made me feel just flat and yack.

Abilify did absolutely nothing at all besides massively increase my level of IBS attacks.

Lithium worked wonderfully well as a mood stabiliser but the side effects were unbearable to deal with. Constantly pouring with sweat (like menopausal hot flush kind of sweat), constant need to pee (at least four times a night - I needed to drink fuck tons of water to keep my levels stable) and eventually I came off it rather abruptly because it was affecting my kidney function. After months of feeling really yack my

[lilac_jellybean]

I take Quetiapine (seroquel), I've tried coming off it because of the weight gain (10 stone in total which is probably an extreme case but have managed to lose about 5 of that over the last year by low carbing and now calorie counting) but nothing else works as well so am back on it after 2 attempts without it.