How often do you relapse?

[BeeKeeper]

Meds have been working pretty well until I "tweaked" the seroquel.  then it was back to a manic/depressed episode - no sleep, fearing the silence and shadows of the dark, having wild business ideas, crying about things that have not happened, manic energy where a speck of dirt bothers me, etc....usually lasts about a week.

Just curioous how many people find themselves relapse..and how often?

[jimgreg]

yes i also relaps alot..

[Csandnugget]

My moods change from daily to every 2 days. Then I get months where I am extremely depressed and tired.
With bouts of silliness in between.

[shay69]

Yes its a very good question and I don't have the answer to it. I'm slowly going up to a therapeutic dose of meds but I still swing once a week but it keeps it half as bad I would say.Also that is typical for bipolar people on meds u will still swing back and forth but it isn't as bad.  Also from what Iv read its the depression that can cause the most issues cause it can be hard to treat sometimes in bipolar therefore lasting awhile.  

[ILADVOCATE]

As I've posted psychosis has not been a problem for me in a long time but I do experience mood swings when there is extreme stress in my life. Generally that should not be a problem but due to circumstances in life that include my physical disability and being physically isolated and homebound as well as other family members with their own issues I have experienced episodes of depression that can flare up and take over my ability to deal with things pragmatically. Before my current recovery it would happen quite often though but that was because I could not tolerate a working dose of antipsychotics to remain stable.

[jmwilcox]

I just started Lamotrigine about 3 months ago. It has really helped with the depth of my ups and downs. I am a rapid-cycler and I'll be up and down a couple times a week sometimes. I still am going up and down that frequently, though, like I said the ups and downs are much less severe.

Before I had my son (which is when my symptoms started getting out of control and I was diagnosed and started taking medicine) I would have two or three major episodes a year. Always in the winter and then another in late summer or the fall. Between those severe episodes, I would have minor ups and downs and they usually occurred once a month or two.

I can really relate to how you described your ups and downs, "no sleep, fearing the silence and shadows of the dark, having wild business ideas, crying about things that have not happened, manic energy where a speck of dirt bothers me, etc". That is how I feel a lot of the time too.

[bpchrisb]

I have found a good medication cocktail right now. I start to cycle when those meds are tweaked or when something else is thrown into the mix.

I had a bad bout a few months ago because my shrink had tinkered around with one of my meds. Instead of going back and looking into what had happened with my original medications, we started experimenting with stuff and it wrecked me for a month.

But, in my case, I am very sensitive to medications and any changes to them. Something as simple as dropping my Neurontin dose by 25% caused me to cycle.

[Xila31]

Recently my ok days last about 1.5 days. I seem to have a continuous rapid to ultra-rapid cycle that goes for about 1-2 weeks, then a day of feeling fine, then right back into it. The longest period or "normalcy" I had appears to have been for about 2 weeks in January. :(

[dame_wilbur]

I'm not sure that it counts as a relapse, but I have to adjust my medications about once a season. I'm hypersensitive and as a result, especially spring and fall wreak havoc on my entire body/mind. However, my psych isn't alarmed by this as she's been treating me for close to a decade now. We just count on it now.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I don't know how often I relapse yet as it's only happened once that I know of so far where my medication increased but I apparently started relapsing immediately when my medication was changed to a really low dose and wasn't aware of it happening.