Bipolar suddenly getting worse?

[rBoulet]

Hi,
I've been relatively stable for the past little while, since I started lithium I was having at least one episode (usually on the manic side) every week but they were so short I didn't care. Yesterday I started getting depressed and today it's worse. I'm hearing things I know aren't there, people calling my name. I've had two panic attacks over nothing! I haven't had a panic attack for a year and now 2! I don't know what to do, I don't see my pdoc for another month and i have no way to contact her. This hasn't happened since I stated my lithium except when I was stressed but there's nothing stressful right now. I'm actually always almost crying today and thinking of death, it's scaring me because I was so well for so long..
Help!

[rBoulet]

Thank you all for your responses, it's good to know this happens to other people too!
It's not that she's a bad pdoc, it's because I go to a free clinic run by the government. It's actually for people with borderline personality (long story about how I ended up there) so she shouldn't even be seeing me because I shouldn't even be there! She only goes there once a month and volunteers her time. The reason I can't contact her is because the rest of her month is spent volunteering at other clinics and her actual job at the hospital (other end of the city, long ways away). The reason I have to see her there is because here you need a general physician to refer you to a psychiatrist for it to be covered and I don't have a general physician (there's a shortage where I live). Hence why I have no way to contact her, i have her email but she doesn't really check it.

Anyways I'm feeling better-ish. Turns out it was just another one of those short mood swings I've been having since starting on lithium and my mind just decided to go full panic and blow it or of proportion. Although it scares me still that I became so anxious and hallucinated and was even suicidal so suddenly for a few days.
Thank you all again and sorry for troubling you all

[Xila31]

If you can't get into the doctor and you need help ASAP I would say go to the ER or urgent care. :(

I was really, really good for a while there in 2007. I went to a five month school program and graduated with honors. I got a steady job for the first time in my life. I was good until last year, 2009. So for 2 years I was good all on my own. Then 2009 BAM, for no reason it hit me like a ton of bricks and I feel like I'm slipping away more and more all the time. I just don't know, but I do think it's progressive, but I'm not a doctor so that's just my opinion. :(

[run4you]

I had something very, very similar happen about 6 months ago. On my meds, everything was perfect for a year, then BOOM I had a mixed episode for no reason whatsoever.

Call your pdoc's office. There has to be someone covering for her. If not, find a new pdoc anyway, that would be ridiculously irresponsible for a pdoc to NOT have a backup or another way to contact them...

Good luck... I hope you can get in somewhere soon and get some help. They had to adjust my meds and throw in an antipsychotic for mine to calm down.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

They should of left an emergency contact number with you, next time you see your doctor get one if you can.  Bipolar disorder is kinda like other psychiatric disorders and the medicine can suddenly lose effectiveness for no apparent reason, perhaps because our body chemistry changes over time.  If things get too bad, then admit yourself to a hospital because it's better than nothing I guess.