Still feeling good overall, it’s emotionally like being in a warm bath (and the weather’s lending to that sensation) but there are dark fingers reaching up, ready to claw me down to depression. I’ve been sleeping more, or at least more overall as I still wake up every four hours. But with at least six hours sleep in me, I’m more sensible or at least down to hypomanic from manic (hypo, the prefix, means “under”). How far down will I go, though? That’s always the question.

That’s where the controversy of using antidepressants in bipolar comes in. It’s not prudent to take them while manic, but once I swing down I need their help to keep from falling too far. It takes a month for my preferred antidepressant (I’m not a shill) to kick in so instead of going off completely during mania, I lower the dose to minimal, then raise it when I really need it. But some doctors would say I should be off entirely. A recent study also claimed that antidepressants don’t trigger bipolar mania, as commonly believed.

No, observed.

No, known by millions it’s happened to, and by those who’ve seen it happen. But I guess the statistics in that paper balanced in different way than many people do.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 8 Jun 2007
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.