When bipolar follows on from antidepressant meds
August 15, 2011 3 Comments
“Today, one percent of all American children have it, and more than 65 percent of them developed bipolar after being treated with a stimulant or anti-depressant” Whitaker
Most people I know and work with who have a bipolar diagnosis say that they took an anti-depressant shortly before they were diagnosed.
Health professionals need to think carefully before giving antidepressants to people who show any signs of bipolar disorder.
Whitaker, Robert, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. 2010, Crown (Random House). ISBN 978-0-307-45241-2.
About Roger Smith (in the UK)
Roger Smith (in the UK)
Rethinking Bipolar 
Sounds about right. I was treated with antidepressants only for 17 years before anyone had the sense to diagnose me correctly
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I had severe depression most of my life and was suicidal. I was diagnosed bipolar and given a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant. I am not on a mood stabilizer now because the one I was taking, Depakote, caused me to have severe full-body tremors after about 15 years on it, even affecting my teeth and tongue! It took me months for the tremors to go away. The only thing I’m now taking is an antidepressant and I truly feel that may be all I need.
My psychiatrist wants me to go back on a mood stabilizer. I am afraid to. I feel it numbed me and I feel fine now, more alive and more like myself. I like me now! I told her that I will go back on a mood stabilizer if and when I need to and she accepted that. My other doctor, a G.P. told me that he would do exactly the same thing..
I know I can fall into a deep, dark hole of depression in the winter time, so I am afraid of that occurring. Just doin’ my best here.
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