[bourne]

My current med schedule is working, in the sense that I'm not deeply depressed and not actively hypomanic. However, I'm experiencing the following low-level symptoms:

• Tendency to want to cry over tiny or ridiculous things
  
• Free-floating anger and aggression, tendency to blindly hate (everyone and everything)

I missed one evening dose of Lithium earlier this week, and the next day I was drowning in anger and aggression. And I'm constantly tearing up over nothing at all. Like, I'm choking back tears sitting here writing this.

Does anyone else have these sort of minor fluctuations when at imposed "normal" behavior?

If it matters, I'm male, which means I'd expect testosterone rather than estrogen variability, but testosterone doesn't make you cry like a baby. The inter-personal stress level in my life is amped up to 11, though.

*sigh*

[creepy]

depakote raises lamictal levels... how much of each are you taking?
Also I dont know that Id want to be on effexor if I suspected bipolar. It can make cycling worse.
If you think you might have low testosterone, you should see an endocrinologist about that. It can certainly have an effect on mood. A friend of mine has done pretty well on supplements after he was tested low.

[bourne]

creepy, on 28 July 2010 - 12:40 PM, said:

depakote raises lamictal levels... how much of each are you taking?

D'oh... My profile needs^Hed updating. I'm actually currently on 1200 mg Lithium (600x2 daily) and 100 mg Lamictal. I stopped Effexor totally last week and stopped Depakote totally back in April.

Quote

Also I dont know that Id want to be on effexor if I suspected bipolar. It can make cycling worse.

The Effexor was to counteract the downer effect of the Depakote; I dropped Depakote in April and then took a couple of months to taper off of Effexor. I had a couple of days after the Depakote dropped but before we began lowering the Effexor where it stimulated hypomania. I hadn't felt that alive in 6 years. Ah, well.

Quote

If you think you might have low testosterone, you should see an endocrinologist about that. It can certainly have an effect on mood. A friend of mine has done pretty well on supplements after he was tested low.

I didn't think so but it might be worth testing... I'll ask my doctor when I see him. I was more trying to communicate that while some members of the fairer sex 'enjoy' the emotional volatility that differing levels of estrogen provide, that's not as likely to explain my moodiness. Of course, it's dangerous saying things like that because it can get taken wrongly

[VAL]

bourne,

Quote

Does anyone else have these sort of minor fluctuations when at imposed "normal" behavior?

I'm not sure what you mean by "imposed". For myself, after my last severe depression it took me around three weeks to get past the point of feeling like I want to cry for no reason. Anger is not a problem I have with depression. It also took me about three weeks to feel like it wasn't a terrible struggle to interact with people. The severe part of the depression only lasted about ten days...completely non-functional depression. I returned to work after that and managed there. So, I felt normal in many ways but had the crying thing.

[bourne]

VAL, on 28 July 2010 - 03:31 PM, said:

bourne,

Quote

Does anyone else have these sort of minor fluctuations when at imposed "normal" behavior?

I'm not sure what you mean by "imposed".

Yeah, that wasn't a very clear or intuitive statement .

By "imposed," I mean that the frank symptoms of bipolar - outright depression, full-featured hypomania - are absent, suppressed by the level of medication I'm on at this time. I know that my medication is working because I know what the two states ('upmood' and 'downmood', for me) feel like and look like. If they're absent, then I'm "normal". "Imposed" refers to the medication it takes to be that way.

If I seem to be in a normal state without medication, then it's easy to chalk up these smaller emotional storms to being bipolar. But if I'm in a normal state due to medication, then it's harder to know what to say about these smaller emotional storms.

[martasi2]

bourne, on 28 July 2010 - 11:45 AM, said:

But if I'm in a normal state due to medication, then it's harder to know what to say about these smaller emotional storms.

Try to educate yourself re: what is going on in your life or thinking that may be contributing to your symptoms. You said in your first post that your "inter-personal stress level" is very high, so that right there is a predictor of a problem. Unfortunately, medications can't be expected to relieve all symptoms, but too many people w/BP assume that if they are "stable" there won't be any mood symptoms including normal symptoms produced by living. It's helpful to be familiar with the range of your symptoms, too, so you get an idea of what is really a symptom that requires medication and what responds to changes you make to your life and behavior. Easier said that done, but it's important.

There are some good books on the market about BP and the need for better living/coping skills, as they are called. You might take a look at some of these and see if they help. Also try to reduce your "inter-personal stress level." It's a challenge.

[Lacey78]

bourne, on 29 July 2010 - 01:52 AM, said:

My current med schedule is working, in the sense that I'm not deeply depressed and not actively hypomanic. However, I'm experiencing the following low-level symptoms:

• Tendency to want to cry over tiny or ridiculous things
  
• Free-floating anger and aggression, tendency to blindly hate (everyone and everything)

I missed one evening dose of Lithium earlier this week, and the next day I was drowning in anger and aggression. And I'm constantly tearing up over nothing at all. Like, I'm choking back tears sitting here writing this.

Does anyone else have these sort of minor fluctuations when at imposed "normal" behavior?

If it matters, I'm male, which means I'd expect testosterone rather than estrogen variability, but testosterone doesn't make you cry like a baby. The inter-personal stress level in my life is amped up to 11, though.

*sigh*

Uh, red flag at a couple of things: you quit Effexor, and missed a dose of Lithium.
Effexor w/d is maybe going to account for the tendency to cry/anger and aggression/blind hate.
Although I did post that I was envious of your quitting it with no w/d on the other board there
Maybe w/d are kicking in after all? I just say that because I can really identify with those symptoms,
going through Pristiq w/d myself at the mo.
And I dunno about others, but for me even missing 2 nights of a regular med, Seroquel in my case,
put me in a big wobble for a couple days.

[mj1127]

I'd give it some time to see if this is residual Effexor stuff; I understand that can take a long time to go away. In my life, Abilify manages these kinds of symptoms.

[bourne]

Lacey78, on 29 July 2010 - 02:56 AM, said:

Uh, red flag at a couple of things: you quit Effexor, and missed a dose of Lithium.
Effexor w/d is maybe going to account for the tendency to cry/anger and aggression/blind hate.
Although I did post that I was envious of your quitting it with no w/d on the other board there
Maybe w/d are kicking in after all? I just say that because I can really identify with those symptoms,
going through Pristiq w/d myself at the mo.
And I dunno about others, but for me even missing 2 nights of a regular med, Seroquel in my case,
put me in a big wobble for a couple days.

Yes, you're probably right. Since Effexor wasn't causing brain zaps or other crippling malignant withdrawal symptoms, I assumed I was getting off free, but I may just be getting off lightly. The symptoms do seem to be lessening over the week so I'll hang in there.

[Artemisia]

What the others said. I wanted to suggest that the emotional instability may have been related to Effexor withdrawal (or to your body getting used to no longer being on Effexor), but I didn't have the guts. Don't ask me why.

Of course it may also be completely unrelated to Effexor.