My name is Michelle and I am a 26 year old Female. 

I have gone on shopping sprees, drove cross country without a driver’s license, had a promiscuous lifestyle, explosive rages, drug addiction, left the country for months at a time, all this before I even knew I was BP. Since the diagnosis, I have started to become more educated and aware of the symptoms as they come. Regularly see a Psychiatrist, who is the best! Other issues I have are anxiety, Self Injury, and SAD( well the pdoc says my mood swings tend to shift with the seasons a bit), but not diagnosed with SAD. I currently use conventional pharmaceuticals (meds), and sometimes use herbal or nutritional supplements. Melatonin is great for getting sleep cycle in order . I could list all the meds I’ve tried…but it would be like 15 of them…so I won’t. What I do take is Lithium, Lamictal, Trazodone, Klonopin, and Melatonin. I take risperdal as needed. I am a rapid cycler, so I have many ups and downs in few months time. My manias are really creepy. They escalate quickly, and I get very impatient, can’t think very well when full blown mania. I go into rages, hallucinate, hear noises and voices. But that was last year pretty much….all before I finally broke down and tried lithium. Rarely have bad manias like that, I hate to say that….the minute you say something like that…it happens once again. Lithium keeps me from skyrocketing to full blown mania….but I have break through hypomania…and sometimes get really close to the creepy mania…but it usually drops off and depression sets in. My depressions I know for sure I have had since my early teens….manias came mid to late teens. Diagnosed Dec 2002, and educating myself every day. I try to find all the info I can on MI, through movies, books, websites, news reports, anything I can get….I used to be a pharmacy technician before I was diagnosed, so I know a lot about what meds are out there, and it really interests me. Anyways, sorry this was so long…

My email is: michelyta@comcast.net