Hi I was diagonised in September 2003 with having "Schizoaffected Bipolar" and since my stay in the hospitial. I haven't been able to hold a job for more than a few weeks and I struggle everyday to care of my baby. I before the hospitial had ups and downs but everyone thought it was I drank and did drugs too much. Iam now clean except for my meds, which i think the dosages are very high compared to other peoples. I take 2000mg of lithium per day,along with 6mg 0f Resperidone and 60mg of Celexus every day. I have also noticed people who were my friends before are not there now and some days I am very lonely. There are also so many changes that have happened over the last few months that I go on and off my meds frequently. Does any one else feel that they are better and stop taking there meds. I have been off mine for 19 days and things aren't so foggy as they were before. I actually have dreams lately even though they are strange I don't mind. I have always been a liitle different with the little man that came to live in my head when I was 10. My doctor gives me the Resperidone so that he will go away but at the same time I miss him because he has been there so long. I first heard him when I was ten and I am now 27 years old. Bipolar runs in my dad's side of the family he had it ,his mother had and one of his other daughters have it. I really want to hear about others successes and failures to help me understand this condition. My first diagonises was when I was 19 years old but at that time I had a speed addiction and they first though it was the drugs and any thing that was wrong with me was because I have caused them with my drug abuse. In Sept/03 i was just overwhwlemed with moving and a stressful job that one night instead of going home to take of my baby I just disappeared for 24 hours . I am not even sure what I was doing that whole time I was gone. Then when I finally got home and was in a state of mania I tried to kill my self and instead of It working I was sent Into a state of phychois. i was then taken to the hospitial where I spent 63.5 days. I can even tell you how many hours I was there. :confused:

I have a son who is on meds.for severe depression,when he feels better he stopd taking them,then the cycle starts all over again.He's 47 & has been told NOT to stop his medication.............Keep taking your meds.or your cycle will start again too......God Bless

even when you feel better do not stop taking them. first of all, its an on going disease, its not a cold that comes and goes, its always there, just sometimes dormant.....ad second of all, i think that the ups and downs of chemicals in your body over time can wear you down and make things worse than if you just stuck with the medication and kept all the levels the same all the time, if that makes any sense. and when you come off a medication, like if you stop it cold turkey its a shock to your whole body, not just your mind, and disrupts things.

I've been on Lithium almost 20 years now... And as I understand it, there are studies that show that if you go on & off of Lithium too much you won't get the full stabilizing effect anymore.
It's like taking a vitamin a day for good health, only for your mental health, you know??
You have to keep a steady level of your mood stabilizer in your system At All Times in order to hold off another depression or manic period.
It's a pain sometimes, but it truly is worth it to stay on meds - and it's part of being Bipolar to question it!!!