I have been a nurse for almost 30 years. I have suffered from anxiety since I was a child. I have tried several antidepressants and they made me almost suicidal— crying for no reason and thinking the world and my family would be better off without me. Then I saw a psychiatrist. She diagnosed me with mood disorder and prescribed tryleptal, (a medication for seizures- these meds a commonly used in bipolar disorder) this med helped a lot until after 6months- to a year I was getting worse and worse side effects- low sodium, rectal bleeding, blurred vision, confusion, palpitations. I have stopped the meds about a year ago. I am very conscious of my behavior and thoughts and recognize my signs of a manic phase, and a depressive phase. Just being aware helps me keep my composure and stay professional at work. I do have to call in sick some days , as nursing is very stressful. Aknowlaging my bipolar disorder and being vigilant in accessing my thoughts and behaviors and mentally stopping the manic and depressive thoughts and behaviors has been working pretty well for me. My daughter lakes lexspro and does well with it. Just realize that there are triggers in life and we have to deal with adversities everyday, and no medication will fix these.
Thank you so much for the comments, they have eased my stress significantly. I've seen a few other posts that mentioned feeling more nervous/jittery/obsessive after increasing dosage or switching to a new drug. So, I know it's not just me and/or a symptom of another disorder.
Thank you again!
Your doctor is referring to bi-polar 2, which many consider an invention of pharmaceutical companies so that when side effects of antidepressants cause increased symptoms they can add an anti-psychotic to the mix and make more money. Don't worry, you're not bi-polar. Upping Lexapro caused me to be hyper, too. And yes, antidepressants often stop working, probably usually. It happened to me with imipramine. The usual psychiatrist response is to increase the dosage, but if that doesn't work, you have to wean off and try another medication. Drugs aren't a cure, just treat symptoms, and are poorly understood by anyone.
mania is times when your extremely happy, anxiety is when your worried or stressed and have weird sensations or panic, its quite easy to tell the difference, im not sure what your asking here, maybe mania is not the word your looking for? manic maybe???
and as far as antidepressants they can make it worse, for a time, but in general after some tome of "adjustment" you feel better. but that can change from drug to drug! its a bit like trail and error sometimes...
Thanks for the response, md135! However, that wasn't quitet the feedback I was seeking. I am currently not diagnosed with BP. My question is, how to tell the difference btw. anxiety and mania. And, whether antidepressants can make people with anxiety experience more symptoms of anxiety. Or, whether this can be considered mania.
Perhaps I should send my question to the doctor's forum. Although, every time I try to submit a question, I get a "the doctor is not accepting any more questions" notice.
Hi,
I also have BP disorder and when i went on lexapro it did change my moods, and actually made me worse for a short time, most anti depressant anxiety drugs seem to until the body adjusts to the difference in chemicals in your brain. I was on a very low dose compared to yours though! i am on 5mg and went up to 7mg and will go to 10mg and stop soon.. when i first went on it i got headaches panic attacks and it was worse for about a week and when i upped my dose it did the same, i think the jump up in meds just set you off and you need to give it a week or more to kick in, maybe take a week off work if possible or something and just relax and let it kick in, i dont work so i had all the time in the world but i no a lot of people dont have that luxury. and maybe increase it more slowly, mg by mg, not go from 20 to 30 in one go, i would NEVER do that, i didnt even start taking 10! i started with 5 and am now working up to 10!
Hope that helps a bit, keep in contact.. hope you do better...
P.S now the meds have kicked in after about a week or two i am fine and happy again.. lexapro works great on me..