Hello Everyone - Mainly S.A.D, Postpartum and some general depression.

[Buttercup]

Glad it helped.  I was only diagnosed a few weeks ago and bipolar is more complicated than I first thought.  I get dysphoric highs not the happy euphoric ones. Then there's the whole thing of hypomania or mania etc so best to have an internet search, my psychiatrist told me to look on there.

Bipolar has to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist, some GP's won't even mention the word, they talk about mood cycles etc so don't panic if you do get referred  &*(

[Got]

Bipolar 11 patients are depressed most of the time, with an occasional upswing into hypomania (less intensity than mania) lasting as little an an hour up to a number of days. Bipolar 1 patients have have manias (more intense than hypomania) lasting as long as number of months.
Bipolar 11 patients tend to be ill for longer periods than type 1. Cyclothymia is a lesser form of bipolar. In cylcothymia, the depressions are not major depression as they are in type on and two, the depressions are periods of dysthymia (chronic depression but not as acute as major depression). No mania is present in cyclothymia but at least one hypomania must be.


Regarding hospital, you are very unlikely to get put in hospital. Even if you frequently feel agressive towards others and voice sucidal ideas, it is still unlikely you get put in hospital. Its quite difficult to get put in a hospital.

You need to be honest with you doctor abotu everything, otherwise you are denying yourself the the appropriate treatment. The intelligent decision is to be honest.

[Buttercup]

Thank you Steve, you did a better job than me, my mind is mush toady

[Simon123]

Ok, I've had a bit of a think about it.

I am mostly low in mood and low in motivation, especially so during the winter.  The only time I have anything close to Mania is when I am drunk, on Prozac or on illegal drugs (not done them for years though).  If my body and mind were in its natural unmedicated state then I wouldn't experience mania.  I can fluctuate between what I understand to be normal and low.  My normal state would most likely be described as laid back.  I can become angry and frustrated and brood on things for a while but The mania was only while medicated.  I am not totally discounting the Bi-polar thing but the regular onset of main symptoms would match SAD.  I just need to adjust to unmedicated life better during the summer (or find something I can stay on) and have some more robust coping strategies which I hope the CBT will guide me towards.

It's great to have somewhere to put it all down and to not feel like an alien though.  Thanks everyone  :)

[Zaf]

Have you tried any of the light therapies Simon?  They help me a little and some people find them very useful.

Z xx

[Got]

Well you have tried ssris. Prozac was a no no. Citalopram...cant remeber if you like that one or not.

You could always a non ssri. Mirtazapine, Trazodone.

[Simon123]

I found light therapy to be a bit useless.  In practice its probably just what I needed but I simply didn't have 4 hours spare to sit next to a lamp.  I tried a SAD lamp, St John's Wort and 5HTP before I finally bit the bullet and visited a GP.  Once I got on SSRI's (Prozac then Citalopram) the improvement was unbelievable.

[Zaf]

I found I needed both medication and a light lamp during the worst months of my SAD, I read in here recently that vitimin D supplements in the winter might also help so plan to try that too after the summer

[Holykimura]

For what it's worth, my experience of being hospitalised was that it's not what you expect. I thought that going into hospital would be something that you see in movies, being looked after and being safe away from loved ones, who I thought i might hurt. As soon as I was in, I realised that this was not the place for me, it was horrible and nothing like what I expected.

I have not had a concrete diagnosis but have been told I might be bipolar 2. I have periods where I feel I can take the world on and then crash to feeling useless and hopeless which last longer that my highs. Good luck.