Facts About Medication for Bipolar (Manic-Depressive) Illness

It occurs to me that there might be people honestly looking and trying to figure out which meds work best for them. This is entirely circumventing the whole discussion of whether bipolars needs meds. The answer is: If you have been hospitalized for your mania, whether just whacked out fun mania or gone to the next level, psychosis, yeah you need meds. For the rest of you, you might need meds too, listen to the Force Luke, what do your insides say. I think when were talking about mental issues, it is helpful to listen to your voice within. In general, I find my voice within is more intelligent than that of the pompous individual who has gone to school and uses books and that sort of thing: the simple person known as psychiatrist. I have learned to gently remind these folks that I am in me and am so much more than a guinea pig for their pharmaceutical industries and the pharm. rep quotas. For all I know those vultures, (pharm. reps), are offering cruises to Bermuda to our most trusted Doc-tas, the psychiatrist. That is a sickening and reprehensable trade, those pill peddlers. They're just kids and don't give a holy damn about people, yes, once the again the poor sick mentally ill. Here, Dr. so-and-so, prescribe this to the shmucks and you win a free tote bag with every other prescription filled. C'mon Dr. so-and-so, you Know you want it!!!!!

Okay here is the low-down. Just what you have been waiting for. What are the effects, the mere side effects for medication that will return you as close as possible to the mental stundedness of the average human being? Anyone want Jimmy Stewart's Harvey the Rabbit? Cause he certainly shouldn't be allowed to have it. (I'm not knocking the desire to kill true psychosis, its the bane of Earthly existence as far as I am concerned. Thank God, for drugs to eradicate that: Down With Psychosis! Stop the Beast! I say) Alrighty, heeeeeere it is!!!!

Lithium: Basis of any decent treatment of Bipolar. Makes you even. Pretty much that covers it, however, Modern Science has NO CLUE as to how it works. True, Mr. Kurt Colbain, this stuff is a salt, and will naturally swell you up. Don't think about it, just take some more. True side effect: Makes you fat.

Depakote aka Valproic Acid: My additional sidekick to the trusty Lithium. Makes you even...mmhmmm...even. I take lots and lots of this stuff. The basis for all my meds, lets call it Bipolar Candy. True side effect: Makes you fat. MMMMmmmm...FAT.

Over the years, I've had different sidekicks to my Lithium: Tegretal, and uh, other stuff (memory loss is a given in the Bipolar). Well, Tegretal is way old school. It's, like, for seizures and stuff, but it werked real good fer me. That was, like, the late 80's, early 90's. So retro as far as Bipolar pills go. I've had so many darling.

Okay that was my mood stabilizers up there folks. Not to be confused with antidepressants. Oh no, you do not want to give the tender, moody, paid my dues and know the difference Tart any of those antidepressants. That's how you separate the depressives from the fun m/d's : I took anti-depressants had just the littlest bit of alcohol: Poof!! Instant mania, rocketing right into psychosis!! Thank you, the idiot who prescribed that stuff to me.

So, mood stablizers are the happy stuff that keep you even. And Fat. Did I make that abundantly clear?

Onto the scary stuff, the anti-psychotics. I must have one every night. We all know that. I was on Thoriazine for 15 years, starting at the tender age of 16. Bad, bad stuff to have a teenager on, and continue on for so long. I have had to take as many as SIX pills just of Thoriazine, darling, at one time, I assure you at night, to knock my monster out. Oh, the fun, the joy darling, what I could tell you about life in the mental hospital and the blessed Outside, taking my glorious mind bending (they were bending it back the right way, ya know) meds while being lauded as both creative and crazy (when WILL I be lauded as creative? Hello. Still waiting.), yes, Lord, that is the life for me.

So anyway, I'm on, like Seroquel now, instead of the Thoriazine. It's like, okay, but, I get these mongo cravings to eat at night. Upshot: It makes you FAT!!!!!

Oh, and dear Friends That Are Searching: Do not, repeat, do not, touch that blasphlemy that is Zyprexa. Repeat: ZYPREXA BAD! Holy cow, talk about gaining weight, that was like a 2 pound weight gain a week. I know because my psych. actually weighed me, all the time, and TOOK ME OFF IT FOR WEIGHT ISSUES ALONE. Yeah, they are being sued for turning people into diabetics too. No touch that stuff. I hate it. The therapist said hold onto it as a prn (take as needed, sheesh, don't you read medical crap?) you know if I got depressed again (the whole thing was started because the bitch, I mean psych., in the hospital put me on it. This was my last mental visit: First time I ever checked myself in and still knew my name the whole time: in other words I went in for the depressive side.) . In fact, I have held onto the stuff only because I do not want to put undue, horrible chemicals into the sewer system if I flushed it down the toilet. Seriously.

Alright. So you see, a good responsible Bipolar gets to know their drugs and know completely the right mix of them. (Which proves they are smart because, its really something to see the mixing of the meds.) The main thing to remember is that meds make you fat. This could be counteracted by exercise, so there is always hope.