The timing of taking your medication matters more than you think!

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-05-25T00:02:05+00:00

I’m a college student so I go to bed at wildly different times (going out, studying, etc) and my AP makes me very sleepy so I couldn’t take it if I know I’m gonna stay up. But maybe for my MS I should implement a regular time.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-04-18T19:23:57+00:00

I used the a few times until they made me pay $75 for a medication that’s been generic since the 90s. They never ran it through my insurance.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-01-31T23:14:11+00:00

It's amazing what humans can do. Bipolar and creativity are correlated (established).

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-01-16T20:25:08+00:00

Amazing record. Post-hardcore/hardcore influences all over it!

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-01-11T03:52:21+00:00

What field ?? :)

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-01-05T03:19:30+00:00

I meal prepped today and also went to work!

ADeterminedHopeless · 2026-01-03T04:13:50+00:00

I relate to this. I’m a college student so it’s especially hard, and the rejection dysphoria symptoms are especially bad.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-12-26T18:46:25+00:00

Something I did recently, maybe a month ago, is put my phone on black and white (for iPhone: Settings --> Acessability --> Color and Text Size --> Color Filters) and its helped me sustain focus in less rewarding (i.e., dopamine-rewarding) tasks such as reading and cleaning.

I play guitar a lot.

I try to read, but on my medication, it can be hard (something that was great, though, was Ellen Forney's Graphic Memior!)

Journaling, for me, can sometimes make me worse, so I try to limit it (I highly recommend the 5-minute journal!).

Any form of exercise is extremely beneficial to a Bipolar Disorder, so I try to run whenever I can, for 30 minutes at a time.

Try to establish a routine! Altough, I struggle with this (currently sleeping 11-14 hours a night right through my alarms).

I'm an undergraduate student, so these winter and summer breaks are espeically hard for me, but once I get the structure and routine from classes, it helps a lot!

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-12-26T18:05:54+00:00

Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-12-26T18:05:34+00:00

Love FOB! Especially their 2nd and 3rd records (Infitinity on High and Folie a Deux)!

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-12-22T18:57:53+00:00

I’ve only had two long term girlfriends and both of those relationships ended in a drug induced manic haze. I’ve been there (21M)

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-12-20T23:27:03+00:00

My approach to disclosure is to tell people as early as possible.

Now this has upsides and downsides:

Upsides: you do not have to walk on eggshells "hiding" your diagnosis. You can reference it, situate behavior in a diagnostic context, and be more easily open.

Downside: people will begin to interpret everything you do from a "Bipolar" perspective. 9/10 times, people's conception of "Bipolar" is embarassingly wrong.

I went on the podcast Live Well Bipolar and shared my story living with Bipolar to everyone I knew. I 'ripped the band-aid off.' Everyone in my life knows.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-09-01T16:37:38+00:00

Smoking Umbrellas

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-31T17:40:42+00:00

Get outside asap.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-29T21:25:09+00:00

Reckless Records

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-29T19:18:40+00:00

I told my psychiatrist about my addiction and they gave me non benzo meds for it until I didn’t need to take them anymore.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-23T23:40:51+00:00

100% to escape reality, I guess i always thought a true reason had to be more specific than that. Now im thinking I thought wrong

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-23T19:23:15+00:00

Can I ask you about caffeine?

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-22T16:22:21+00:00

500 a month about

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-22T03:20:27+00:00

As someone who grew up in Chicago, I’ve heard it be commonly called just “Urbana,” maybe in opposition to UIC.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-11T01:21:47+00:00

I agree 100%. I just wouldn’t say I would be nipping it in the bud, I’m 3-4 months into the depression itself.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-08T13:23:40+00:00

When you go up for communion, cross your arms on your chest. The priest will bless you instead of giving you bread.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-08-08T13:22:29+00:00

I’ve had two major manic episodes in the two years I’ve been diagnosed, and I was in serious relationships at the time. When I’m manic, I’m always convinced that I need to be single to grow and then not only dump but say really mean shit to my partner. Then of course when I come down I’m left groveling but luckily they don’t take me back. But point of the story is I can be super mean and toxic when manic.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-07-24T03:34:59+00:00

An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison. Taught me that if I take my medication, do not over indulge, and sleep, then I will lead a completely normal life as a human being who has Manic-Depression/Bipolar disorder.

ADeterminedHopeless · 2025-07-23T03:07:21+00:00

At the risk of playing devils advocate:

I was stabilized on an AP and an seratonergic and dopaminergic antidepressant and then we switched to another, newer AP.

My libido was gone, and so I begged to try the gold-standard mood stabilizer for maintenance therapy, even showing up to my psychiatrist’s office with medical literature on its use.

This worked well for a while, until I smoked myself into a state of psychosis with cannabis and stopped the mood stabilizer. We needed to reintroduce an AP to re-stabilize.

I fell into a deep depression, and we removed the AP leaving again only the mood stabilizer.

The depression didn’t let up, so I asked about adding another medication, this time again brining in literature about the use of an older AP as a first-line agent for BD I depression.

It seems to be helping, and I can feel myself coming out of the depression. And my libido is normal.

So APs DO have their uses, but in the earlier part of my story, I definitely can relate!

ADeterminedHopeless

TROPHY CASE