I will not introduce myself, say my favorite color or where I live. I want to focus on a more deep layer of myself. The only useful information now is my diagnoses. I was diagnosed within about two months ago with having (or being) Bipolar Disorder Type II, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and depression.
My treatment now consists of weekly visits to the psychologist, biweekly visits to a psychiatrist, and a combination of two medications: Cymbalta and Zyprexa, one pill of each every day. The first one is for depression and the second one is a "mood stabilizer", for the bipolar disorder. I was told that this is still not the final dosage.
Before starting with both medications, I was taking Ritalin, prescribed by my former psychiatrist. I am a foreigner in USA, with no insurance, so I tried to reach out to the professionals I knew. I was diagnosed 6 years ago with ADD and depression, and took Zoloft for a while and tried out the Ritalin. However, I decided to stick to one medication, quitting Ritalin before I could even feel any results.
My current psychiatrist wants to know me more before prescribing anything for ADD. He said he wants to make sure, so he advised me to quit Ritalin so that they (the doctors) could observe better the effects of the other medication. Fact is I am feeling my thoughts racing sometimes and it feels uncontrollable. It might be the Bipolar acting, but I am still to figure this out.
The other day I bought some books: "Bipolar Disorder Demystified" and "Finding Your Bipolar Muse", both by Lana R. Castle; and You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid, or Crazy?!, by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo. By reading those books I will attempt to cross the information with my personal experience, to ultimately learn how to live - for the first time.
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