The Medication Roller Coaster

Do not be afraid of medication when diagnosed with a mental illness; it can actually be your friend and help you lead a normal life.  Unfortunately, it is usually a roller coaster of a ride until you find the one, or combination, of meds and dosages that work for you.  This can be a scary thing, but you have to trust in yourself and  your provider that you will figure it out.  

New medications take time to become effective, and the first couple of weeks on a new one can really suck.  Sometimes, even after your body has become use to it, you will still have side effects.  It is important to weigh if they are something you can live with, or if you have to try a different dosage or medication.  

Something else to consider is that once you have been on a medication for a while, your body may become immune to it.  In this case, you may need a new dosage, or even a new med, starting the roller coaster again.  This is not a bad thing!  It is just part of it all.  

Some of the medications may not even be for mental illness; but commonly known to treat something else.  Do not freak out; your doctor is not nuts, some drugs have been known to treat things other than what they were created for.  

Make sure you have an open dialogue with your doctor and your pharmacist.  They will make this roller coaster a lot easier to ride. 

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Monday I went back to work after almost three months off.  Even before that I worked sporadically.  Now I am committing to forty hours a week.  Why?  Well I need to get back into reality.  I am currently living in a toxic situation and need to move my family (my son, dog, and cat) out of our current domicile and into something better, mentally healthier.  

As an update, I now see a therapist about once a month, my shrink about every six weeks, and liking my meds.  I have a list of AA groups for the area, and mental support groups.  Hopefully I can find something in them, some sort of peace or validation.  

I feel like I am starting life over again, new job, new place to live, new goals.  Starting over, again.  We can do this though, we’ll do it together.  I’ll help you by pouring my heart out online and you’ll help me by liking or viewing my posts.  Another goal is to not leave you hanging so long between posts, and to finish things that I have started.

Wish us luck!  We are going to need it :)

Danielle

My Time in the Psych Ward: The Breaking Point

Lake Winnebago

I am really trying to put this all together, but I am finding it very hard to organize all of my thoughts, so I figured I am going to try and start from the being, my breaking point.  I currently live with my boyfriend, his seventeen year old mentally disturbed son, my dog, my cat, and half of the time my five year old son, and my boyfriend's sixteen year old daughter.  If that is not a formula for stress, I do not know what is.  Throw in useless social workers from Winnebago County Child Protective Services and a couple of dead beat moms and you have the perfect cocktail that no combination of medication can cure.  Skipping a bunch of the personal details for their sake, I left my house in tears after a argument with the boyfriend and found myself crying hysterically in the park.

I do not remember driving there, I just remember saying over and over to myself that I couldn't be here (home) and slamming the door behind me.  The park is just blocks from my house and I probably subconsciously thought that sitting by the water would help, since the beach was always my refuge when I lived on the East Coast. Staring out at Lake Winnebago was the best Wisconsin had to offer at the time.  After a few minutes of watching the small waves break, I knew I needed help.  I wasn't right, something was wrong.  I drove to the hospital, parked in emergency and sliced my wrist with a box cutter that I had in the truck.  I walked through the doors, hysterical and could not even talk to the lady at the reception desk.  She just had me write down my name and date of birth, and when she asked me my symptoms, I just held up my wrist (I just want to note that I am a chicken and barely broke the skin, the fact that I actually attempted to do this is really what had me in hysterics), she nodded and told me to go have a seat.

There was only one other person in the waiting area, she started talking to me.  She asked me if I was okay, and all I could manage to answer her with were sobbing nods.  She talked very plainly to me, and told me that I was going to be alright, I did it the wrong way, so I will be fine she said.  I was having a nervous breakdown she said, she told me she had had a couple herself.  The whole time I could not stop crying, a nurse came to get me shortly after, I did not even hear him call my name, the lady that was talking to me called him over to me.  I vaguely remember talking to other nurses and the doctor, but I remember talking to that lady clear as day.  Part of me now wonders if she was even there.  I spent a couple hours in the emergency room, I fell asleep watching Despicable Me 2.  When I woke up, I had no idea where I was or even what I was doing there for the first few minutes.

That night I voluntarily committed myself to the adult psychiatric ward.

My Time in the Pysch Ward: Introduction

So last week I was voluntarily admitted into the adult psychiatric ward at the local hospital after a suicide attempt.  I was originally going to only write one big post about it, but I have been having a hard time adjusting back home and I want to spend some time on certain things that I have experienced in the last week or so.  I also want to do some additional research on a few topics, hopefully adding in some information that you might find helpful.  If you would like to be notified when a new installment is added, please make sure to go to the desktop view and at the bottom of the page, you can sign up to receive email notifications.

One important thing is that I know I am not alone; you are not alone.

This is the most accurate description of how I feel.

Meds & Shrinks

Some days you are a bright flower,
others, you are wilting away.

I am so tired all of a sudden, the energy and motivation I had a half hour ago is just gone. I am lying here in bed, under the covers, trying to motivate myself to get up and do something. This post is my compromise.

I keep saying I am going to add some useful content to my posts, offer more information about bipolar disorder, but I just cannot seem to get my focus together. I think that is because of a couple things, the first being my living situation, and the second being my meds.

I had wanted to do a couple posts about medication and treatment because, well, they are important. I am not going to lie, it is a roller coaster trying to find the right medication or combination of medications and then dosage on top of that. It is kind of scary in a way; I had an allergic reaction to the very first one I tried and that threw me into a mania that resulted in me crying on a closet floor at work with a rash all over both arms.  

Not all people need medication and some will not function without it. It is also not a fix all. I happen to do well on medication and monthly med-check visits with my doctor. I have seen a therapist in the past, and have really benefited from the experience and am currently thinking of starting again. I just tend to not like most of them, so it takes me a while to find one I trust enough to pour my heart out too. And you know what? That is okay! It is okay to not like a therapist or doctor, just move on to the next one! Just ask yourself first, if you really do not like the level of care/treatment they provide, or do you just not like what they have to say because you think they are pompous?

I have been through a handful of therapists, but only on my second psychiatrist. Sometimes you hit gold, sometimes just dirt. A psychiatrist can prescribe medication, and due to a high demand and short supply, usually end up just doing med-check visits, while a therapist helps you sort out your thoughts. That is why a lot of people see both.

It is always a good idea to see your primary care physician to rule out any other health issues. Mine ran a full range of tests and gave me some questions to answer before referring me to a mental health provider. That was my second step, the first was realizing/admitting there was something wrong, things needed to change, I needed help on a professional level.

If you feel you cannot afford treatment, please contact your local Health and Human Services Department for low-income/no insurance options!

Different Stages, Different Authors

I think it is important that I mention that I write during ups (hypo-mania, mania) and downs (depression).  It may seem that there are two, or even three different people writing on here, but I promise, it is only me.  I do not have multiple personalities, my mind just functions at different speeds and levels of clarity so you might read something that seems relativity put together one day, but then something else full of raw emotion the next.  If you read Heart vs Brain then you know what I am talking about.

It is not just about ups and downs either, there are level times, which makes up most of my days.  It is a cycle, an semi-predictable one for me, but that is not always the case.  I can tell when I am riding high, when I am about to crash, and of course when I have crashed.  What I have not been able to pinpoint is when I will rise back up from a depression lull.  It used to be three days, like clockwork, but now the spats last longer, are undefined in severity and hold no pattern.  I can deal with being level, I can deal with hypo-mania, mania is a different story all its own, but depression, that can engulf you to the point that you do not get out of bed for three days.

......  I started this post three days ago an this is as far as I got.  I would finish it, but that thought is now lost.  I would delete it, but I want people to see that this is something that actually happens with my brain.

Danielle

Faulty Wiring

I wrote this short essay a couple of years ago as an extra credit project for Chemistry.  I hope you enjoy it and it gives you some insight!

Danielle

Bipolar Disorder: The Result of Faulty Wiring

The terms unipolar and bipolar were coined by German neurologist and psychiatrist, Karl Kleist, in 1953.  Our focus will be on bipolar, a disorder, not a disease.  How can you tell?  Well, you can catch a disease, but not a disorder.  It can be classified as a number of types of disorders, such as a Spectrum Disorder, in which there is a varying degree of severity of symptoms, a circular disorder, and mental, emotional, and behavioral disorder. 

Bipolar disorder is genetic.  Twenty to forty percent of people have the genetics to develop it and currently affects approximately six million people, over two million are American.  The biological and genetic roots run in families, but are blind to age, sex, race, and ethnicity.

In those that have the markers to develop it, it has to be triggered.  Triggers often include hormones (pre-menstruation and menopause), trauma, illness, injury, drug use, stress, and lack of sleep.  Once triggered, treatment, if diagnosed, would include medications and talk therapy.  Medications are prescribed on a trial and error basis, but research shows we are getting closer to a treatment based on science, not guessing.  Lithium is one of the original medications prescribed and worked well for unknown reasons, but newer drugs have taken its place.  One downside to lithium is that it is a salt and is processed in the kidneys, so in some patients, after a long period of time, a switch to a medication that does not go through the kidneys is made. 

Bipolar disorder is generally caused by a chemical imbalance that deregulate the bioelectric system, causing symptoms.  The amygdala, two almond-shaped groups of neurons (a cell body and two types of projections sometimes wrapped in myelin), play a large role in bipolar.  When physically stimulated, as in brain surgery, it has shown to trigger anger, euphoria, and hypersexuality.  It is located in the limbic system, or middle brain, which monitors all internal organs, and controls the pituitary gland.  It is the initial processing station for input coming from all of the senses. 

Between the neurons are gaps, called synapses, that send electric signals, which turn into neurotransmitters (chemical signals), and vice versa.  These signals tell cells when to release dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, which are monamies.  This controls mood regulation, stress responses, pleasure, and reward.  Cognitive functions: concentration, attention, and executive functions, are also affected.  Brains scanned with bipolar disorder show an average of thirty-one percent more binding sites for signals in the thalamus (involved in sensory and motor signal relay and regulating consciousness and sleep), and twenty-eight percent more in the ventral brainstem.  Some of the cells at these sites are either not firing as much or others firing too much. 

With all of these unregulated signals, it is no wonder that one experiences manic and depressive episodes.  Episodes of mania can include racing thoughts, hypersexuality, rage, euphoria, an inflated ego, memory troubles, confabulation, brain chemical surges, psychogenic amnesia, decreased ability to sleep, unable to stop talking, easily distracted, mood swings, impulsive behavior, and poor risk assessment. Bipolar depression symptoms includes hopelessness, loneliness, helplessness, worthlessness, confusion, difficulty concentrating, self-loathing, indifference, loss of libido, recoiling from social events, lethargy, and thoughts of harming yourself or others.

When the very first episode is triggered, men usually have a maniac episode for the first time, and women tend to have a depressive episode.  As the social stigma is being lifted, there is more and more research being done to establish a cause and potentially a patient-specific treatment, even early screenings!

Bibliography

Bressert, S. (2013) The Causes of Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression). Available at: http://psychcentral.com/lib/the-causes-of-bipolar-disorder-manic-depression (Accessed: 3 May 2015)

Carter, J. and Dempsy, B. (2009) The complete idiot’s guide to bipolar disorder. New York: Penguin Group (USA)

University of Michigan - General Clinical Research Center (2014) Are Brain Chemistry Oddities a Sign of Bipolar Disorder?. Available at: http://bipolar.about.com/cs/menu_science/a/press_umich0210.htm (Accessed: 3 May 2015)