For those who chose the route, what meds do you take?

NOTE: This is not a debate on whether psychiatric medications are bad or good, but rather a place for those who chose to use medications as part of their overall therapy, to talk. Also, saying mental illnesses don't exist is simply off-topic and hopefully will be ignored.

I have been diagnosed as having Bipolar Disorder- Rapid Cycling. I am almost always depressed, and mania never presents as euphoric, but rather psychotic and agitated.

I take:
Lithium Carbonate (1200mg)- it is a mood stabilizer with an unknown mechanism.
Propranolol (20mg)- it is a beta blocker that stops my hand tremors from the Lithium. It has no side-effects, though.
Lamictal (400mg)- a mood stabilizer that also is an anticonvulsant. It works by inhibiting glutamate. It is specifically for bipolar depression.
Effexor (150mg)- SNRI antidepressant that I am tapering off of. It didn't do anything.
Klonopin (2mg)- a benzodiazepine anti-anxiety med that I use once in awhile. I rarely take all 2mg.
Adderall (20mg)- a dopamine releasing agent used in severe cases of depression when all else has failed. Paradoxically, in people with bipolar it acts as an anti-manic unlike how it behaves for the general population.

I also attend psychotherapy every week and try to ride my bicycle to get some physical activity.

 

Lithium Carbonate 1350 mg

Lamictal 300 mg

Risperidone 3 mg

Risperidone is a life saver for anxiety and panic attacks, plus it's cheap.

 

well how bout , youre being brain washed.. is that better?

 

The only meds that ever made me feel brainwashed were antidepressants (SSRI/SNRI) which I now avoid like the plague, and antipsychotics (well, that makes sense doesn't it).

I feel more alive, open-minded, free to do as I chose, etc. now, than I did before treatment.

I still can't believe you had to reply to this in a sarcastic manner even though I told you people to stay out. I don't care though, since you are probably a Cannabis user or psychedelic user- maybe you're brainwashed?

 

The government is controlling your mind with
these pills...you're a sheep and you don't even know it!

 

Wow, way to stereotype people on this website....

 

Okay. I won't pull an ad hominem again. I just had to get one in due to the extreme condescending nature of the post in question.

However, I would love to know how my mind is being controlled? Give me some examples, and I am sure I can refute them.

However, I am sure that many people do succumb to mind-numbing effects on certain drugs. But the same goes with people who use psychedelics and other supposed "mind-expanding" drugs. Don't deny it.

 

YOU CAN CHANGE YOURSELF.. rIDE YOUR BIKE MORE, BREATH air..

 

Yep, it's that simple isn't it?!

 

I take regular daily doses of smiles and laughter...99% of my psych meds comes from my friends here

 

And dont let a glenglen use your Pc cause your cap locks will get stuck..

 

..................:toetap05:



Cheers Glen.

 

I swear he is psychic

 

you dont want to know whats making the keys stick.. it isnt gum, but rhymes with ..

 

Maybe you guys are referring to mild depression and anxiety, but when you become so agitated and delusional that you convulse and scream out sentences of nonsensical verbiage followed by crying for an hour, that is a different thing. And that happens to me without medication.

I also do ride a bike, read, take baths, garden, hike, and do all of the "natural" cures, yet that is not enough for severe symptoms.

You people need some empathy. I thought hippies were supposed to be caring, accepting of all people's views, non-judgmental, and non-elitist? Some of you are showing signs of all of that. I joined this forum to meet people like that, but this thread is not giving me a good impression. Maybe it is true that all hippies are gone.

 

i take trazodone, lamictal and zoloft

 

we're not all Hippies...some of us are just friends with them:eggnog:

 

What do you think of Lamictal? I think it is a very good drug with few side-effects. It doesn't impair you, but leaves you with a general positive outlook on things without making you nervous or anything.

 

yeap...

<hits crack pipe...

 

My step dad always said that the more friends you have on the Internet, the less you have in the "real world". But he's a dick...