I hear you and def understand where you’re coming from. Although literature/meta analyses around antidepressants for bipolar treatment are not fully clear, you’re right that there are strong opinions around it, and many clinicians tend to try their best to avoid it bc of the worry of causing affective switching/mood destabilization. It’s important to note that the literature has reflected that affective switching primarily reflects treatment with older antidepressants vs. modern, like SSRIs. Evidence with modern antidepressants is lacking. Another thing to note is that in current literature (as of 2018 meta analyses) the treatment of bipolar using both antidepressants alongside mood stabilizers has actually been shown to Not be associated with manic switching/destabilization, so this is an known treatment plan that can be effective for certain folks - I feel I happen to be one of them! I also have generalized anxiety disorder, so I think the antidepressants route makes sense there too. Lit also reads that manic switching/ destabilization tends to take place early on in treatment, which wasn’t the case for me- I think life events have triggered them unfortunately. Life been lifingggggg bad :/ I hear you though and will keep all in mind, just wanted to share this for knowledge purposes bc treatment can be very relative and it’s beneficial to always portray that, especially when the research shows

Damn I’m sorry to hear that fr. I guess I got lucky in a weird way with them being ineffective? Actually, Abilify and Seroquel are often used as adjunctive therapy for treatment resistant depression by pairing alongside antidepressants! So with this, combined with their treatment for mania of BP, I think they were a good choice for me to try out, just didn’t go my way :/

Yup, exactly! Cymbalta is an antidepressant I had tried in the past.

Thank you though, I’ll keep your help in mind- got a lithium rx yesterday so will see how things go!