Posted by starlight on August 6, 2004, at 11:20:22
Hi All,
I saw my new doc yesterday and feel like I was misdiagnosed as Bipolar II for a long time. The reason I say this is because I really never had the symptoms of Bipolar and feel like the last doc picked up on my agitation because I was on Wellbutrin, which the new doc says is very common.Okay - so he and she have/had me on Trileptal and Lamictal. I believe that I have depression with PTSD, (hypervigilance and anxiety are very common for me.) I've never had a problem sleeping, never had the typical mania symptoms such as uncontrolled spending or the sexual activity. I am goal directed and ambitious, but any successful person is, and I can't conceive of how that's a problem. If anything I think it's healthy as long as there's an awareness there. Nor has my depression ever made it impossible for me to get out of bed.
Well, the deal is, if you are Bipolar II and you come off of the anticonvulsants and stay on an antidepressant you are very prone to rapid cycling which evidently is a nightmare to treat. So she wants to keep me on the anticonvulsants prophylactically. Have you ever heard of that? We don't know each all that well, and I'm fine with being very patient until she gets to know me better, and I want to be very cautious about coming off of them and take a lot of time. But I sure as heck don't want to be taking some drug prophylactically if I don't need it. This stuff costs too much money and it can't be good for your body.
My last pdoc was a nightmare. He broke my confidentiality and eroded any trust or faith I might have had in him by doing that. He put stuff in my medical records that he promised he wouldn't, and, coded and sent the information to my insurance company. So I don't necessarily trust his judgement and think that just because I was on wellbutrin and agitated (which she says is common) that he jumped on the bipolar train.
What do you all think about the prophylactic anticonvulsants to prevent the possibility of rapid cycling, even if the illness is misdiagnosed?
starlight
poster:starlight
thread:374689
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040805/msgs/374689.html