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Re: Bipolar fibro new
      #172220 - 04/21/05 12:33 PM
Tissy

Reged: 07/15/04
Posts: 773
Loc: Baltimore, MD

Now that is interesting!! I feel very hyper, can't sit still, have to do something kinda feeling when I am having a good day fibro wise. But then when I get into a flare I want to crawl into bed and hide from the world. And I understand about the cycles. I just went for 3 weeks w/ no flare ups and then HELLO here come the achies! They started yesterday and are still here today. Maybe there is a link btwn. Fibro and Bipolar or maybe when we feel good we just FEEL GOOD and want to make the most of it. And when we flare up and feel bad, then it can be depressing. I don't think I will ask doc about Bipolar though, I already have a list of medical issues a mile long, I am afraid he will just add another mile to it.

Christie

--------------------
Christie
~Hoping and Praying for Sleep!~

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steather new
      #172271 - 04/21/05 01:42 PM
BL

Reged: 06/01/03
Posts: 3522


Just wanted to say that I also have bipolar. I have taken many of the mood stabilizers. I'm now on trileptal, which I like, but it has caused vision problems. (I'm off to the eye doctor tomorrow). It sounds like you have a good doctor. It is smart not to start you on an SSRI until you are on a mood stabilizer. I found that out the hard way about 6 years ago! When going through a bad depression, I was given an SSRI---and it caused mania, which is how I came to be diagnosed with BP.

By the way, I see you are in Raleigh. I live in Charlotte. Are you a student at NC State?



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Beaglelover.. new
      #172411 - 04/21/05 11:34 PM
steather

Reged: 01/29/03
Posts: 345
Loc: Phoenix, AZ

Yup! I am in my first year of graduate school at NC State. I did my undergraduate at Arizona State (and between all of the stress of graduate school, moving across country and now dealing with multiple new health issues, it's been a rough year!!)

I haven't even had any time to go anywhere outside of Raleigh, unfortunately, cuz I would love to see the mountains or beach sometime...maybe this summer.

And I just started taking the mood stabilizer today...and they've got me on a low dose to begin with, gradually upping it until I'm at the dose proven most effective...so we'll see how it goes...hopefully it's not an incredible shock to my system and I dont get any weird side effects (like the fatal rash they warned me about!!) But I have noticed that I'm able to sit here and NOT think for once (I don't know if its all the drugs doping me out, or what). It's amazing! I'm so used to having a million thoughts racing through my head at any given moment, I could never ever relax...


--------------------
Heather

"Quod me Nutrit me Destruit"



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Steather. new
      #172547 - 04/22/05 07:09 AM
BL

Reged: 06/01/03
Posts: 3522


Ahhh, those racing thoughts! That's the same thing I thought when they started me on my med. I couldn't believe that a person could actually think about one thing at a time. I had always had 10 different "channels" going on at once! I used to get confused if I were driving and the radio was on. Now it doesn't bother me! Interstate traffic would give me panic attacks. Now I see only one lane at a time! Does that make sense?

Once on the medicine, I thought to myself, "Gosh, other people have it so easy---if this is how they "see" things!" Life used to be so confusing. Now it is much easier. What should've been easy was so frustrating. (such as preparing dinner.) I would open the pantry and be so overwhelming that I would want to cry. Now I can concentrate on one thing at a time. I just wish I had been diagnosed sooner. My poor family has had to deal with so much, including holidays where I would have a complete meltdown from all the stimuli.

Have you dealt with depression? I had a horrible case of it about 6 years ago (after a traumatic event), and that's when I was diagnosed. I thought everyone had "down" periods like this. It was only after I saw a doctor for this that I realized this was not normal. I had had ups and downs my entire life---but thought everyone had those!!! I asked my husband if he felt that way at different times of his life, and he looked at me puzzled and said, "What are you talking about?"

My husband says when I'm manic I jump from one subject to another while talking. He cannot follow my conversations. I don't realize I'm doing it, but he now knows to say, "Whoa!!! Slow down! You are all over the place!"

I've decided I have weird body chemistry. I don't know if it's the BP or what, but whenever I take meds, I always have the opposite reaction that most people have. For instance, Benadryl (the main ingredient in Tylenol PM) makes me so HYPER that I'm up all night. Same with Nyquil and the SSRI's that supposedly make people drowsy. And Sudafed makes me insane! I got into trouble taking it during allergy season one year. (I didn't sleep for weeks!)

I fought and fought the diagnosis of BP, but after 7 doctors came to the same conclusion, my husband advised me to give up and accept it! I do feel much better on the medicine and have just resigned myself to the fact that I will always have to take it---if I want to lead a life without constant frustation. The minute I discontinue the med, I am so irritable. I'm mad at the world, myself, and everyone I come in contact with. I could pick a fight with the cashier at the grocery store--and am usually in tears. It's just not worth it to me. Now that I have felt a peace, I don't want to return to that.

I hope this medicine helps you. Let me know how it goes!
Good luck!









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Re: Bipolar fibro new
      #172996 - 04/23/05 03:54 PM
LauraSue

Reged: 01/14/04
Posts: 4812
Loc: New York City

Quote:

Yeah, Tissy, I can totally relate to the family/friends not understanding...I think that is why i went so long without getting diagnosed....I would have a few really bad flare-ups, but the rest of the time I "appeared" normal. So it was hard to convince myself that I did indeed have this condition. But you're right, when you are in the middle of a flare-up, there's no mistaking that something is SO NOT normal!

Now along the lines of cycling between flare-ups...I was just today diagnosed with a mild case of bipolar disorder (add that to my steadily increasing list of medical conditions :P). And I realized that my fibro is itself bipolar, in that the pain cycles in and out (sometimes for months, sometimes just pops up to say 'hello' whenever it goshdarn feels like it)...and I think that my polarity of moods seems to correlate pretty well with it. I.e....when i'm really hyper and active (manic), then i seem to be in less pain (or is it because when I dont have any pain, I tend to be hyper???)

I've found several websites suggesting a link between bipolar and fibro, but nothing really conclusive (other than the fact that the two seem to show up together alot in practice!).

Interesting, huh? My body has become a weird science experiment now. I'm starting on a mood stabilizer now (lamictal)...have to take that before i can take an SSRI for the fibro, to avoid any crazy mood cycles.





My sister, who has fibro and bipolar and IBS and migraines, and her psychopharmacologist believe that there is not only a link, that it's really all the same disease at the cellular level, just manifesting in different ways. There are so many similarities it can't be just coincidence. Like with my migraines, I have a hyper day or two just before I get one, when I'm high energy, happy, cleaning everything in sight, etc, then when I get the migraine, I'm so depressed I want to die. Not really, but the change in the seratonin levels is that extreme.

Glad to hear you're doing better, hon, and thanks so much for the compliment about writing a book -- you made my day!

--------------------
Laura
Keep it simple!

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Re: Bipolar fibro new
      #173004 - 04/23/05 05:33 PM
Wind

Reged: 04/02/05
Posts: 3178


This is interesting. I am bipolar. I'm only learning about fibromyalgia. I ache ALOT, and only sleep when drugged--no joke. When I say, I have to pop a pill to sleep--and, it hurts, skeletally/muscularily to sleep--or it won't happen, I'm quite serious. I've gone years without sleep. The funny thing is, after you've slept, you're tired from actually having slept after such a hiatus from some regular zzz's. It takes a few weeks to get the hang of it and bounce back. Oh, I'm just babbling again...but at least bipolars are brainy and brilliant and creative and the drugs do wonders for facilitating a balanced enough mood to LIVE.
Though, I admit, I miss some of the perks of mania...like the BEST SEX I'VE ever had--note sex, and not relationships!
Bipolar brains are just neurochemically differently wired. Sometimes challenges like this are blessings.

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Yeah, this is mentioned... new
      #173304 - 04/24/05 10:43 PM
Linz

Reged: 09/01/03
Posts: 8242
Loc: England

...in MArk Pellegrino's book. Apparently lots of them are connected. My Mum's (undiagnosed and mildly) bipolar and I get manic and then depressive with migraines too.

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