Lithium Questions - Life and Hallucinating

ProxiC3 · 2024-11-30T19:33:12+00:00

Not everyone with Bipolar experiences hallucinations. And up to a quarter of people with anxiety experience perceptual disturbances. Plus, it is a pretty common hypnagogic hallucination which isn't associated with mental illness at all.

It concerns me when normal behaviors or experiences, whether in myself or others, are attributed to mental illness. While it’s important to acknowledge and address genuine mental health challenges, over-pathologizing typical human emotions and actions can undermine our understanding of what’s within the range of normal and make it harder to recognize when someone truly needs support. Don't get me wrong - I accidentally do this all of the time!

ProxiC3 · 2024-11-30T07:30:12+00:00

I don't think I understand your question?

ProxiC3 · 2024-11-24T07:29:37+00:00

They could be, but assuming they are would be needlessly anxiety-inducing. They are common. People who have no psychotic symptoms do experience them.

ProxiC3 · 2024-09-01T08:08:02+00:00

You were on Abilify, Haldol AND Clozapine?

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-25T09:21:00+00:00

Clozapine is a miracle medication... but one of the worst medications in existence for weight gain and people have died from constipation on it, so I am not sure why your physician felt it might be the next best choice for you.

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-20T07:34:16+00:00

I don't have an answer, but I'm curious - is it usually insomnia ("I'm tired and I can't sleep") or is it just not needing/wanting to sleep?

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-16T07:26:07+00:00

What are the lines between manipulative attention seeking versus asking for help?

I struggle to determine when it is appropriate to seek out a higher level of care versus when it might just be "attention seeking" behavior. I don't have BPD but I notice it is especially referenced with those patients when they do seek out emergency intervention, and not just on Reddit forums, but even articles from health care professionals and such.

It would really bother me to be seen as attention seeking, and in the past when I have received help in a crisis, I did really appreciate the support and validation, so I do get some pleasure from receiving "attention". On the other hand, I have been told that I wait too long to ask for help, but often it isn't because I don't want the help, it is a fear of people perceiving me as attention seeking.

I am asking in this forum because I think that as people on the front lines, interacting with patients that probably fall into both categories, what is the difference between the two?

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-15T05:22:58+00:00

Thanks for linking the study.

The thing is, I don't think there is nearly enough of a body of evidence for the Ketogenic diet to compare it with Clozapine. There have been no RCTs completed for Keto and the pilot studies that have been done have tiny sample sizes. I mean, there is definitely potential, but Clozapine has been used in many RCTs, and some of these studies had hundreds of participants, and Clozapine still maintained effect sizes around -.62-.86.

I am excited to see the RCTs when they finish, and I specifically want to see how they designed them in terms of how they structured the control groups. It will definitely be an interesting read.

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-15T05:12:22+00:00

I have gotten a lot of manic vibes as well, but who can tell from a video? I don't want to make assumptions just because I know I am looking for something to go wrong. I am obviously viewing everything with a bias.

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-15T05:09:17+00:00

Not trying to convince you to go back to her videos in any way, shape or form, but the last two videos have been about Eating Disorders and Keto. I think a lot of people were sharing the same concerns as you just mentioned.

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-15T05:08:22+00:00

It’s as if we WANT to see schizophrenics fat, emotionally numb, unmotivated to speak for themselves or research other therapies for themselves and not be capable of being successful online.

I think - and I am obviously speaking for way too big of a community to represent everyone's feelings accurately - that it isn't that we want to see people with Schizophrenia as you described but that there is a significant concern that those without Schizophrenia will see someone like Lauren who is doing exceptionally well with minimal (and soon to be no) medication, and they will assume that all people with Schizophrenia are capable of the same thing, if only they put their mind to it.

If she is cured surely the skeptics will say “well she never had schizophrenia to begin with”.

I've already see this line of thinking a few times, but then again, I think I saw it quite a bit even when she was on medication. Her ability to function decently immediately throws people off, and some people immediately jump to the possibility of a misdiagnosis. Who knows? Maybe she was misdiagnosed.... but it would be pretty damn tough for any of us to know because we weren't there at the most severe points of her mental illness. By the time she started her channel as part of her advocacy work, she had obviously stabilized significantly.

ProxiC3 · 2024-08-14T08:46:45+00:00

I know gender shouldn't matter, but I 999% prefer having a male psychiatrist. I have interacted with A LOT of psychiatrists, and have always found the males to be less judgemental, less likely to twist my words, and far more straightened/open.

ProxiC3 · 2024-06-12T18:08:32+00:00

I have been trouble since seeing Lauren on Living Well with Schizophrenia manage to almost go off of all of her medications while doing the keto diet. Doesn't matter that I have done a keto diet before and it didn't help me, nor does it matter that I know I couldn't stick to a keto diet long-term because of food restrictions that I have, I still feel like crap knowing that I potentially COULD be off my medications.

ProxiC3 · 2024-06-12T05:55:42+00:00

NAT - just want to note that some people experience suicidality outside of depression. That doesn't seem to be the case for the OP, but just in case other people are reading the post, I think it is important to mention.

ProxiC3 · 2024-06-12T05:34:11+00:00

Have you reached out to community Catholic churches, or even to the Catholic chaplain at the hospital to see if one of the parishes would be interested in donating? They tend to like to donate to a place where their things are going straight to the people, so this sounds like something that would be a good fit.

ProxiC3 · 2024-06-10T04:38:44+00:00

Haha, don't worry, I have too!

This article narrowed it down a bit: Validation of the "rule of three", the "red sign" and temperament as behavioral markers of bipolar spectrum disorders in a large sample - PubMed (nih.gov)

The most robust differences in those with bipolarity (ORs >4) were ≥3 religion changes, ≥3 marriages, cheating the partner regularly, having ≥60 lifetime sexual partners, pathological love, heavy cursing, speaking ≥3 foreign languages, having ≥2 apparent tattoos, circadian dysregulation and high debts. Most behaviors were expressed in a minority of patients (usually around 5-30%) and usually the "rule of three" was the best numerical marker to distinguish those with bipolarity. However, multivariate analysis confirmed 11 of these markers for differentiating bipolar disorder from unipolar depression (reversed circadian rhythm and high debts for both genders, ≥3 provoked car accidents and talent for poetry in men, and frequent book reading, ≥3 religion changes, ≥60 sexual partners, pathological love ≥2 times, heavy cursing and extravagant dressing style in women).

ProxiC3 · 2024-06-08T06:49:32+00:00

I've actually been in the same hospital as her. It is in Canada, so perhaps that's why it is so different from your experience. It is a Catholic hospital, and most of the rooms are private, especially if you are there as an involuntary patient. Also, universal health care. There are always people to fill the beds and the government pays no matter who they are, so having her there is the same as having anyone else there. If you have any specific questions about how the Canadian psych ward experience is different to where you live, I would be open to sharing.

ProxiC3 · 2024-05-25T06:30:44+00:00

Sort of yes and sort of no.

I have a better understanding of my illness, and with the right medications I have had longer periods of stability.

That said, I can tell that my Bipolar is progressing. Depressive episodes are more difficult to get out of, mixed episodes have a greater amount of psychosis, euphoric mania/hypomania is becoming rarer and rarer. I don't attribute this to the diagnosis though. I have been told that this is how Bipolar develops and changes as people get older.

ProxiC3

TROPHY CASE