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[Neonivek]

just remember, the longer you stay on them, the longer you have to ween yourself off of them or face severe withdrawal symptoms

Odd, I just stopped.

[nenjin]

just remember, the longer you stay on them, the longer you have to ween yourself off of them or face severe withdrawal symptoms

Odd, I just stopped.

Most of the literature I've read says stopping cold turkey isn't a pleasant experience, and can be cause for other side effects.

Then again, I'm talking to Neo.

[Neonivek]

I could have been on a low dose from the getgo.

Then again, I'm talking to Neo

I just like the other implications I can take from this.

[Sappho]

What kind of dose are you on? I was put on a very high dose of venlafaxine and it was a hellish experience for me. The worst part was trying to get off the stuff... I once tried to cold turkey and I literally couldn't even stand up and walk to the bathroom to take a pill. I had no history of mania but became manic on it... it warped my personality and destroyed my ability to sleep normally. It's been about a decade since I took the stuff but the effects have stayed with me. I think people put too much trust and faith in these "doctors". I'm not trying to discourage you from seeking help... by all means try everything you think might work. But don't afraid to say "no" if something doesn't feel right to you. I wish I had done that.

It wasn't a high dose. 75 mg. I only had ONE pill, and it was now more than a week ago, but I'm still having side effects. I can't drink alcohol at all. Half a beer and I feel sick - not drunk, just sick. I really hope it gets out of my system soon.

Ten years ago I was put on an SSRI for a few weeks before I had a breakdown and nearly killed myself (hooray for antidepressants!), and it took over a year for the side effects to stop.

Fortunately I'm not having any major problems now. Just waiting to get normal enough that I can drink alcohol again. And I'm starting to think that maybe it won't be a good idea to try lithium after all. The possible side effects from that could be much worse, not to mention it interacts with many other things. I'll have to see how things go. Anyway, I tried to contact the doctor on Monday, but he's out of the office for a week, so I'll have to try again after this weekend.

[Vector]

I'd like to add that I hear neuroatypical people can react in unexpected ways to this sort of medication, so that might also be part of the problem.  I mean the autism situation, not the bipolar situation that would also count as neuroatypical.  In that case, the issue is that the population just isn't studied in trials, like how medication used to be uniquely tested on men without also being tested on women to see if reactions were different.

Good luck, Sappho.  I don't know anything much helpful about your situation, but I've had bipolar friends so I've gotten a hint of what you're going through.  Hugs for you if you want them.

[freeformschooler]

Most of the literature I've read says stopping cold turkey isn't a pleasant experience, and can be cause for other side effects.

Yeah don't don't don't don't don't do that with SSRIs. You're playing russian roulette with a pill by going cold turkey. src: experience & friends' ssri experiences, n=4

Hope this works out well for Sappho

[Sappho]

Thanks guys. I'm okay for now. The only reason I agreed to medication was because I didn't want to risk getting another attack of mania, but maybe I'll hold off for now after all. I mean, it was years in between them. Maybe I'll get lucky and I won't get any more... For now, I think I might go back to self-medicating my issues through non-prescription substances. I actually had a really good system going for a while which worked very well without doing me any physical harm (primarily use of lsd and marijuana, which are not illegal where I live). Then I stopped cold turkey and terrible things happened. I might start trying that again, using it less often than I used to (I definitely had more than I needed) so it doesn't build up in my system so much, and weaning myself off slowly if I decide to stop. In any case, that helped me a lot more than anything a doctor's ever given me, without any negative side effects until I tried to stop and went into a strange withdrawal (re-adjusting to "normal" perception I guess).

I had a schizophrenic friend once who self-medicated with lsd. In fact, years ago there were a lot of official studies about using it to treat schizophrenia, but when it was made illegal the research was generally abandoned. Schizophrenia and autism are similar disorders, so it makes sense that it would be useful as a treatment, if I could find the right balance and stick to low, infrequent doses.

[Reudh]

While SSRIs and SNRIs may be bad for you, you could consider a reversible MAOI.

Irreversible MAOIs are baad, baaad things, that are pretty much prescribed as a last ditch anti-suicide drug. Reversible MAOIs, like Moclobemide/Aurorix are much nicer. Their side effects are significantly lessened vs. SSRI, SNRI and irMAOIs, but the downside is they take a little longer to take effect (it took me nearly a month before i started noticing significant changes in my mood, vs. about 3-7 days on an SSRI).

I'm on Moclobemide, and it's not done me wrong yet. It's apparently also retrospectively been proven to help with bipolar depression. Talk to your doctor about Moclobemide, before considering self medication.

Thus far, the only side effect I've noticed myself is a slight aversion to cheese (and headaches caused by eating cheese) - due to the suppression of MAO required to process an amino acid found in cheese.)

[Sappho]

I've decided to forego medication for now. I'm doing great and have no need of meds. In any case, I never wanted treatment for depression. That was the whole issue to begin with: I specifically asked ONLY for treatment for the mania, to prevent it from happening again. (I do get depressed at times but I can deal with it, and these days it is almost never severe, just unpleasant.) Instead, the doctor gave me an antidepressant with no mood stabilizer - one which is known to cause mania in bipolar people. That is, the *opposite* of what I asked for.

Since this thread has been resurrected, I might as well share that I saw the doctor again last week, finally. I gave him the pills back and explained what happened and what I learned about the medication, particularly that it's only for depression and it can cause mania. He said "yes, that's correct." He was so matter-of-fact about it that I thought maybe there was some kind of language-barrier problem initially, that he actually didn't understand what I had been asking for even though I thought I made it perfectly clear. I briefly considered demanding to know what the hell he was thinking when he gave me the pills, but decided it wasn't worth dealing with a confrontation. He agreed with me that I don't need any treatment right now, so that's the end of that and I won't see him again unless it becomes necessary.

If the mania comes back as bad as it was before, I'll deal with it somehow. But unless it starts coming regularly, or gets really dangerous, I will probably avoid medication. This time around the doctor agreed that the next thing I would have to try is lithium, and I really don't want to have to deal with that if I don't have to.

[Pnx]

I'm glad to hear you're doing alright. If you believe you can deal with it well enough without medication then I actually recommend going without. As I say, it's only a problem if it's a problem. Good luck to you.

[mjhacker]

I just have to say... those sound like absolutely hellish bouts of mania.  My condolences.

I've been taking SSRIs (Celexa/Citalopram) on and off for a few years now, because the doctors I've gone to all have been treating me for major depression... but in the last year or so I've come to realize that I'm bipolar by discussing my symptoms with a couple friends who've been diagnosed with the disorder.  Celexa was wonderful for treating my depression, but I would always wonder why I would start getting incredibly irritable and crazy every few months, then I would stop my meds because I got paranoid that they were changing me, then I would get incredibly depressed and that forced me to start taking them again... repeat ad nauseum.

I can second (or third, at this point?) OP's statement that SSRIs are definitely NOT for the treatment of mania.  Unfortunately, it is VERY tricky for a doctor to properly diagnose bipolar disorder.  It's usually the depression aspect that prompts people to seek treatment, so that's all the doctor sees.  I used to be unable to recognize when I was going through a manic phase, because I always thought mania was happiness.  For me, it involves irritability, sleeplessness, social anxiety/paranoia, racing thoughts, obsessiveness, and an overall delusional feeling of self-importance and invincibility.  It turns out that it's not normal to shut yourself in your room for a couple days while you painstakingly agonize over humanity's problems and the fragility of life, or start popping a few morphine and hydrocodones a day just to slow your thoughts down to normal speed (my pill-popping phase only lasted a few months, thankfully).

Anyway, I hope you're doing well, OP.  I'm doing the no-meds route currently myself.  Please try to keep an eye on your symptoms, and if they start getting bad, get on mood stabilizers ASAP.  I'll be doing the same.