The Story

So, the story behind the bipolar 2 diagnosis... I had been depressed for about 3 months and nothing was working. All the antidepressants that I had tried were making me worse. I've been on Celexa in the past. At 20mg, I started getting depressed in the beginning, increased to 40mg, partial response, and then to 60mg, partial response. Added Abilify 10mg and Wellbutrin 150mg. Abilify at 10mg didn't do much, and Wellbutrin at 150 helped a tad, but then when it was increased to 300mg it was much worse. So about a month ago, I stopped both Wellbutrin and Abilify because it was determined that neither was helping me. Celexa isn't helping either. So as I'm in the midst of all this medication change, I'm feeling pretty good, almost on top of the world and impulsive! I bought a plane ticket to visit my sister in Philadelphia, without really intending to go anywhere for spring break. Hey, the fares were cheap! Spending money in fabric stores, hey the sales were good! Realizing that the racing thoughts in my head were part of bipolar was a huge symptom indicator for me. I didn't realize that racing thoughts and impulsivity were symptoms of something much larger. I've almost always been 3 steps ahead of everyone else, isn't that normal? The new part of this for me is the impulsivity and losing control of how much I'm spending. Now, I will give someone my wallet, or hide my wallet in the car so that I walk out of the store with what I was intending to go in only. Having the wallet in my car means that while I'm walking back to my car, I'll be thinking about my purchase and is it really necessary? This is helpful. Recently, it's gotten better and so I'm feeling good about that. The pdoc and I are trying to get the racing thoughts to stop before doing anything else. Medications I am on now: 5mg Saphris mid morning 10 mg Saphris about 5:30 10mg Saphris before bed 25 mg Lamictal (beginning of mood stablizer) in the morning. increasing to 200 over the next 2 months. 20mg Celexa (coming down off of antidepressants) in the morning. unrelated medicine: .075 mg of Synthroid in the morning. Saphris is a temporary drug to get me back to normal. I've noticed that it helps, but as you can see my sleep is disturbed. I've been up since 3:30am doing some schoolwork and interior design work that I'm looking forward to completing.