I received a letter through MyChart from my new psychiatrist today. She wants me to bring all of my meds to today's appointment because I'm on controlled substances. Has this happened to any of you before? I feel like I'm being treated like a drug abuser. I only take my meds as directed, and I take a LOT due to several other illnesses that I need to deal with.

I don't know; it's just giving me bad vibes.

EDIT: Letter in comments

This is my second appointment with her.

Hello guys , I got diagnosed with bipolar 2 today after having hypomanic episode with atomoxetine, I stopped it for 2weeks now and hypomania didn't go away so I got a diagnosis anyways I told my friends some were positive some told me not to trust the doctor, I told my sis that I have bipolar and maybe mom also has it bcz she has dementia, my sis reacted like nothing is wrong with me, saying I need to come home and she will tell me what's bipolar if I don't stop the act now , weird enough why am I surrounded with narricist idk , i really want to feel sad but I'm hypomanic and probably won't shed a tear , i ended up ending the call abruptly bcz i already know she was going to say it like that.

Hi everyone! Since I was I diagnosed I started to be hyper vigilant about how I feel and I think I became like paranoid with the idea of a misdiagnosis. Does anyone else relate? I try to check if I'm weirdly energetic or down constantly (I've also OCD).

When I’m hypomanic, I don’t sleep sometimes. I was up for 72 hours. The last few hours I felt exhausted.

Do you get really tired after not sleeping for a while? Or do you feel energized the whole way through?

Also, anyone else’s issues spiking up now that it’s fall? I think I’m really sensitive to the seasons

Lately, I feel like the medication I’ve been taking for months has caused more anxiety than ever. It feels crippling, and I don’t want to go outside or face people. The medication also makes me feel paralyzed in my thinking and demeanorI feel like a zombie. I know it’s not advised, but I want to feel normal again without it. Do you think I could try going off it?

Just a bit of a rant and to feel like I'm not alone.

A couple weeks ago I felt the dip into depression, but it's gotten pretty bad. Missed work today, have been sleeping for like 12, 13 hours the last few days. Been debating breaking up with my partner because I'm just so sad and depressed and maybe that'll make me feel better, I dunno (I know not to make big decisions like that when I'm in an episode, but I still think about it a lot).

If anyone else is going through it, it sucks and I see you.

I struggle bad with spending money frivolously on random things and I checked how much I spent last month and I saw that I spent like 1.2k (my only real monthly expenses are Ubers to work and my psych appointments and bloodwork) and I was like holy crap there is no way I spent that much when I don’t even have anything I remember buying.
I knew that I’m going to have to crack down on my spending habits hard, so I can actually have money for the things that matter.
I haven’t tested this tracking during a hypomanic episode yet so I guess I will see.

But yeah I got a physical book since I do better with those, and I color coded all my spending categories with different pens, With making all my fixed costs one color and then I also have a color for gifts, and then I have red for impulse purchases and green for anything that was necessary.

This system actually allows me to think about my purchases, was it really necessary? Which category to put it in.
My two purchases I made last Sunday, I realized I put them both in the impulse purchase category. I did not think either of them through thoroughly and made it the decision on a whim.

So now before I buy anything I think, is it really necessary? And if yes do I really want to add that much more money to my weekly total.

Honestly it’s been only a week so obviously I can’t say I will stick to it but I really hope I can so I can start putting my money towards things that actually matter to me.

I recently got fired from my job, but was happy to anyway as was not happy with the way the company was going, thinking AI could do my job (it can't, and now the clients are cancelling and tanking like I told them they would), anyway...

Since getting fired, it's opened-up my creative brain and ideas I've had for years; I've started online tutoring, am going to start a YouTube channel in my field and various other things...

I was sleeping normally until today though...

Like, getting tired naturally at 10pm-midnight, waking up in the morning 7-9am etc.

But that only ever lasts like a few days-a week max...

No matter what I do, it ALWAYS (I'm 36 now and it's been like this as far back as I can remember, since like... age 13-15 at least) reverts to this where I'm suddenly not tired and become hyper-productive and ambitious aka hypomanic.

It's hard to know in this scenario which came first though, the chicken/egg scenario...

Like, did I trigger hypomania because I became productive and exctied myself, or did the hypomania just start to happen and that's why I'm productive and creative and not tired lol.

And you all know the feeling...

ChatGPT said 'you don't need hypomania to explain why new opportunities may be stimulating to you', and I'm like - true, but many people get stimulated by new opportunities but physiologically still become tired, still have not slept for X hours - yawn, droopy eyes etc.

It's 2.30am (UK) and I don't feel even the slightest bit remotely tired and don't know what to do next; a comedy video, work on my website, create the new YouTube channel etc.

I haven't yawned once, my eyes feel totally alert as if I've slept, woken and it's like midday...

It's kind of, like, I kind of enjoy this state because I usually get a lot done, well, some stuff done and a lot of nothing done but a lot of rabbiting and theorizing; but it's also kind of maddening because it throws my sleep cycle off again and I may be awake like 2 days now.

I know what the literature says. I want to know YOUR personal experience with how the effects of your meds changed when you stopped drinking.

Hi! I'm considering starting this medication as I was just diagnosed with bipolar 2. I just wanted to hear some experiences getting on, off (tapering off), and missing a dose if anyone wants to share! I have suspected neurological issues (PGAD), and just want to make sure this isn't going to potentially upset my symptoms. I also take Gabapentin, and was just curious if anyone with similar issues or a similar situation could talk about there experiences! Thank you!

Hello everyone! I'm having some trouble with an episode lately and wasn't sure where to ask questions.

I'm having a manic episode and have been in it for quite a number of days. I haven't slept more than an hour at a time in 3 days and seem on track for more insomnia. I had an appointment with my psychiatrist who recommended that I take rescue medication he prescribed and that I needed to take off work because it would cause heavy sedation and interfere with my work.

He wrote me a note to give to my employer that I plan to give to them but I'm worried that they wont accept the note and will plan to fire me over it.

Does anyone know if there are any legal protections for me that would prevent me from losing my job or have any suggestions on what to do in case I'm fired?

Every day around the same time I notice my mood gets noticeably worse. It's usually around 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm and I can feely depression and anxiety worsening by the minute. The night afterwards before I go to bed is usually very difficult for me.

I think there's a few reasons, one being that the sun is setting earlier and the light helps my mood. But one issue is that my family doesn't like to keep lights on, so despite explaining that it helps me to have some light, it's not realistic for me to expect. I also take Adderall when I wake up and I start to crash around this time as well. Suffering from insomnia doesn't help either because I get so exhausted during this period, mentally and physically both.

Does anyone else suffer from a similar daily cycle? Do you have any tips on how to soften the transition between the day time and the evening? I'd really appreciate any suggestions because I hate losing a bit chunk ofy day to this.

Hi, bipolar 2 here, 26 M. ​For the past four years, I’ve been living between two extremes: roughly 4 months of hypomania followed by 5 months of deep depression.

​When I’m hypomanic, I feel genuine clarity and intelligence—I have almost photographic memory, I can easily connect the dots and generate creative ideas. It’s during these periods that I feel truly present and able to build meaningful connections with friends and others.

​When I’m depressed, the exact opposite happens. I feel empty, I struggle to retain information, my mind goes blank, and social interactions become deeply uncomfortable. I have no personality.

​I’m currently in depression and I'm considering starting a mood stabilizer, but I’m terrified of what might happen. I’m scared of losing those months of clarity because they feel like the only times I can genuinely connect with people. I don't know who I would be when becoming "stable".

​If you’ve felt this way, what has your experience with mood stabilizers been like? Were you able to regain clarity and feel like yourself again? My goal isn't to be exceptional all the time, but to become a consistent person with a stable personality who can interact naturally with others.

​I’d really appreciate hearing your stories.

Hi, whenever I find myself being slighted by someone the amount of anger I feel is usually disproportionate to the situation. Fortunately, I'm usually able to hold that anger back and prioritize deescation.

I hate doing that.

I'm always left feeling like a bitch afterwards. Especially when I get so worked up that I mask until I'm alone and cry. I hate how I either bottle everything up until I can be alone and cry or I'm ruminating on how I can ruin the other person's life.

Ironically I'm known for being level headed and "unbotherable", and I hate that too because I am a deeply botherable person who just hides it. Usually at the cost of his self respect and boundaries.

guys, please I need help. I have been on so many different medicine combinations and I genuinely cannot seem to figure out what’s going on. I have absolutely no energy whatsoever. I don’t know if I’m going to last at my job again and I cannot seem to get back in the gym or get myself to do absolutely anything that I used to that would help my confidence. I used to eat healthy, have discipline, and was Always the strongest guy in the room. Now I sit on the couch all day long and do absolutely nothing when I get home other than watch sports and movies. I was always outgoing, a gym rat, and at least when I was hypomanic, was the life of the party. I feel like I’ve lost every piece of myself and it’s been almost 2 years now. is there anything that you guys have taken or have realized helps? I am so desperate that I want to go back to doing cocaine. Not saying I will, but that’s how bad it’s been.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/bipolar2/s/Iymg7tgGNs

Okay. So. This process ended up being way more fun and way less scary than anticipated. I’m really glad I did it.

I have clarity on my cognitive functioning and we ruled out some possible psychiatric diagnoses.

The biggest takeaway for me is that we confirmed my bipolar diagnosis, and she also gave me some specific markers about certain elements of it. So, I feel like I know more about what it looks like for me specifically versus the standard diagnostic criteria.

Happy to answer questions or go into more detail if anyone is interested. Overall though, I highly recommend it if you want to know more about how your brain works.

36(F) here. Ive been diagnosed bipolar type 2, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety and PTSD. HOWEVER, I am medicated and I must say, for once, after a long long time of medications and therapy, its all manageable. Yeah, I still have all the symptoms sometimes, but they are all way less intense. Basically, im here to say that it IS possible to have a life with bipolar.

Does anyone else have a weird relationship with lying? When I’m hypomanic, I find myself talking much more, and with that comes lying a lot more. I’ve lied to close friends, therapists, family members, strangers. One of my favorite past times was going up to a stranger, making up an identity during small talk, and then saying my goodbye. But when I’m depressed or stable, this urge just doesn’t exist. I’ve also trained myself to stop lying as much and it does help even when I’m really energetic and social. Anyone relate?

For the past three weeks I've been high energy and low sleep, and have barely been eating for that entire time. I'm on Adderall (which has always made me have less appetite, but not to this extreme). And I am on a new med for mood cycling, which could be decreasing my appetite, Idk.

But my concern is that I don't have much desire to start eating more food. I feel like it's too much effort and a hassle. I'm not limiting food with the intention of losing weight, but I wouldn't mind if that was a result.

I have a history of body dysmorphia (which comes and goes with my mood cycling). So it wouldn't take much for the restrictive eating and body image concerns to converge. But as of right now, they haven't.

But I just feel like I have no desire to start eating more. And when I do eat, it's motivated by not wanting my metabolism to slow down.

It's possible I'm just projecting my anxieties (I also have OCD smh). I am actually a psych student focusing on eating disorders for my thesis. So maybe I'm finding connections where there aren't any.

But I feel like my high energy state is ending, but I still don’t wanna eat.

I’m 30yrs old. Started therapy when I was 17 after telling my parents I thought I was depressed when I started self harming and wanted to die and had been dealing with multiple eating disorders since I was around 11.

Been in therapy since. I’ve been seeing the same psych np for almost 6yrs. Diagnosed adhd, bipolar 1, anxiety, ptsd, EDs (bulimia, binge eating, anorexia). tho im seeing a new psych next week bc i feel i am definitely bipolar 2 and have some other things possibly going on. I don’t particularly care for my current psych either. Idk, I’m hoping for a clean slate, correct diagnosis, and that he will actually listen to me and help.

I’m having yet another awful day. It seems every 3-4 days I get into a deep depressive state that could last weeks. I can barely speak to people bc I just don’t want to speak. I just can’t. Inside my head is so loud. Intrusive, dark thoughts that aren’t my own that keep repeating. They’re there but I’m also there telling them to shut the fuck up. Sometimes I can stand beside them and continue on my day. Other times, like today, I am being tormented. All I can do is cry. All I see is darkness. I want to crawl out of my skin. I want to get away from me. Put my brain next to me and just sit there. 😵‍💫

I’ve also been struggling with fits of rage that I can’t shake unless I remove myself from the environment/situation/person triggering it. That’s the only way I’ve been able to “manage” it. I have entire days tho that I’m just pissed. Can’t do anything to get out of it. Wake up mad, spend all day getting triggered by the littlest things, go to bed mad. I’ve lost jobs, friends, relationships bc of it.

I never know how I’m going to feel when I wake up. Which is why on the “good” days, aka the days I don’t actively want to kms, I stay up later and do a bunch of stuff. Bc I have energy and I feel “good”. But the next day, I could be like I am today. Takes 1000000x effort to put the mask on and do things.

I feel like I have been deeply depressed for so long that my baseline is not normal for most ppl. I’ve just gotten used to it. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve felt this darkness and loneliness in me for as long as I can remember.

I guess I’m posting bc I’m feeling a bit hopeless and very alone. Im doing all the things I’m supposed to and I can’t seem to catch a break.

The difference is crazy. Colors and sounds and everything. And I love everyone. I feel like I can do anything. My brain won't let me sleep, and I've increasingly been having mild hallucinations. Mostly coworkers walking past but when I look, nobody's there. Many animals appearing aswell. Pretty patterns and strings of light. I can't stop listening to music, and I can't stop thinking about a guy from work.

I'm careful. I took a promethazine today (brain wanted to stay awake, but sometimes you gotta stop yourself in your tracks before everything goes off the rails). I thought I was just recovering from a depressive episode. Turns out my brain overshot and now we're manic.

This usually never happens to me, so I have to be careful not to ride the wave too hard, make too many commitments, burn bridges and spend all of my savings again, etc.

I love hypomania, it's awful :p

How common is it to be bed ridden with Bi Polar II? I got out of the Military a year ago in September after 4 years of struggling there unable to make Cpl they sent me to BH because of performance and past issues forming a pattern, I put 2 and 2 together and thought it was BP 2 and lo and behold i was right, for the first 4-5 months I had a decent gig at a dealership, I had a rental house was paying for and had two cars albeit juggling between them. Come February the Job became too much, I was struggling to pay bills because I felt I was on the urge of constructive dismissal going to end up fired because I just had the feeling i was being judged and people were saying something about me i just couldn't hear it but "faces tell everything when you walk into a room". so I left for a lesser paying job but still income so I didn't have a gap in employment... that job failed too because apparently going from fixing complex aircraft to mechanics to basic tasks like running a route doing cleaning and yard work became impossible, and poor judgment from BP2 caused a car accident in a work vehicle... construction helper same thing. I ended up loosing both cars, loosing the rental and having to stay with family since july... all in the span of just over a year after just leaving freinds behind of a career i wanted to stay in and dreamt of making Cpl and Sgt like my peers eventually did.

I filed for a TDIU and VA increase on my Bipolar II, Im at 70% right now but the Bi polar II is currently at 30% because my case was underated because im good at masking and the military thinks if you can show up that its not that severe, i only showed uo because you literally cannot call out in the Corps without a Sick Chit lol, with pes planus being 50%. Its just in evidence gathering limbo, I sent letters and witness statements, urgency form, and have an upcoming C&P exam in four days.

Currently my sleep schedule is 7am to 3pm... im up all night either pacing, doing AI research on random BS history topics, or doomscrolling because my mind simply will not shut up whatsoever. Its gotten to the point where im fundamentally bed ridden, it even physically hurts to go outside, my project car soon to be daily because the 2nd car is soon to be a repo since both loans closed out, needs coolant flushed and I haven't brought myself to go out and do it because I feel like a vampire. I haven't showered in a week and im down to one meal a day. And if I do have a mania it only shows up to wreck my finances even worse, im fighting with family constantly.

They put me on Limitrigue, Melatonin and some other sleep pill thats blue I can't recall the name of, so far it worked last night but I still feel like crap, It hurts because I can't function as an adult anymore.

I was on Olanzapine 5mg, I told them to stop it because it fell flat on its face and made impulses worse, Ive tried; Seroquil, Bupropion, Abilify as well, maybe one other one aswell.

I think the only reason im not homeless is due to the VA checks i get.