Lamictal/Bi-Polar question…?
I was recently taken off Wellbutrin due to horrible side effects and the worsening of my depression. I have been reading up on why this happens and I was wondering if anyone had an answer for this one. I was reading that if you are taking an anti-depressant and your symptoms get worse from the medication it can be called Bi-Polar #4. Now, my psychiatrist says that she believes that I am Bi-Polar, my psychologist believes that my psychiatrist is nuts and that I have major depressive disorder and severe anxiety/post traumatic stress disorder that can be relieved through exercise, ativan and self-help books and new age thinking (yay). So, my question is, with both of those opinions in mind. Can you GET Bi-polar disorder from anti-depressants (e.g. Bi-polar #4) or are you Bi-Polar in the first place? Thanks!
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I do not know anything on the #4 part but I am bipolar. If you have mood swings. Depression then high highs that is manic. When you are bipolar you go thro cycles of each. Sopmetimes many times in a day. I would tend to believe the psychiatrist. They have more schooling and I think if he was treating yopu first let him try to work it out.
Anti-depressants won’t CAUSE bipolar disorder. About 3-4 weeks after starting anti-depressants you may have a really happy, can look manic, type of happiness which then levels off and you may still have depressive episodes which look like the down-swing of bipolar. That happens to lots of people, it doesn’t make you bipolar. If your Psychiatrist doesn’t spend much time with you (mine saw me for about 5 minutes before “diagnosing” me, which my psychologist doesn’t agree with either) they might not have the insight that the psychologist who you spend more time talking to has.
In the end you have to decide which of the two professionals you think is right, and act accordingly. And remember, you can always get a second opinion from another Psychiatrist and see what they have to say.
Hope this helps!
as far as I am aware if you take anti-depressants alone when you have bipolar it can cause mania (high end of bipolar) you can not get bipolar from an anti-depressant you must of had it before you take the medication it was simple sat there waiting to come out. there are 3 main types of bipolar type one type 2 and NOS (not otherwise specified) some people say there are many other types but it really comes down to them 3 types.
Hi
I have Bipolar 1 severe. I have never heard of a Bipolar 4 but if that is the case where is Bipolar 3? This is very confusing to me and contrdicts what I know of Bipolar and Lord know I do no know it all but I try to be as accurate as possible. So with that being said…
You cannot “GET” Bipolar. If you have Bipolar, you have always had it but there was something or the cummulation of time or your skills you have been using to cope w/out knowing it need more help, so your symptoms may be showing more than before. Which is why you go to the MD so on and so forth.
Bipolar is very difficult to diagnose in most cases at first. You will have diagneses of Anxiety or Depression…after time if you do have Bipolar then eventually we hope the correct diagnosis comes out. Bipolar mimmics anxiety, depression, etc so that is why the difficulty in the diagnosis.
Bipolar is not a disorder that you can “catch”. A disease you can catch, a disorder you cannot catch.
I am not sure what your question is on Lamictal, so I can’t address that one.
If you want to talk more in depth or questions or any thing for that matter, my contact information is in my profile and please feel free to use it anytime. I have much information on Bipolar since I have Bipolar and have been on many meds and are now still on many meds to control my cycles.
Take care and should you choose to contact me, I’ll do my best.
Be safe and be well
you can not catch bipolar, it is inherited or developes — it is not a virus
I think there are psychiatric researchers who believe that antidepressants can permanently worsen bipolar disorder if you have it. If you are young, you could be bipolar and only have had depressive symptoms so far.
Usually bipolar depression causes you to sleep more, gain weight and you are often agitated about how bad you feel (atypical depression). People with major depression usually have trouble sleeping and are off their feed.
I find bipolarworld.net, click on ask the doctor, then read up on dr. phelp’s stuff (he has his own page, dunno what it is) he addresses a lot of issues.
In my opinion, the doc is more likely to be right than the therapist. Getting hooked on ativan is not a good deal, either.
Oh, and finally, identical twin studies show that if one twin has bipolar disorder, the other has a 60% chance of getting it. So you need the genes, but you also need some kind of environmental insult to get it. Could antidepressants do that? Who knows?
Anti-depressants do not cause Bipolar Disorder, they can however precipitate a mania in someone who is predisposed even if you have never had a manic episode previously. Often times when this occurs in a person with a history of only Depression, the diagnosis is changed to reflect the presence of an underlying Bipolar Disorder. The concomitant use of a mood stabilizer, like lamictal, decreases the risk of a medication-induced mania when anti-depressants are necessary to treat the depressive symptoms.
You mentioned that your depression worsened when on Wellbutrin, but you didn’t say that it precipitated a manic or mixed episode, so I am unclear what symptoms were exacerbated. The Bipolar diagnosis would make more sense if you had a manic or mixed episode, or if there was a family history of the disorder, but lacking either I would be suspicious of the diagnosis. Bipolar is extremely overdiagnosed, especially by psychiatrists, as it tends to respond well to medication. It is often confused with PTSD if the hyperarousal is misinterpreted as mania and anxiety is not a distinguishing feature of either as it tends to accompany both disorders. It’s impossible to give a diagnostic impression without a complete history, but lamictal could well help treat symptoms of either Bipolar or PTSD, and it is unlikely to cause any harm either way, so it wouldn’t hurt to try it.
bipolar is bipolar, no matter which way you look at it, doctors wants to call it, By numbers to push drugs on you,