Hi.

I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 3 years ago, when I was 15, and I am now 18. I've been through a rough last year of high school, but I'm finally done. I want to start College off well. Two concerns of mine:

One thing i find is that whenever I have a boyfriend, it puts me into a pretty bad depresssion. And then they break up with me because they can't handel it, and then I get into a worse depression. I'm not sure why. But then when I don't have a boyfriend I find myself wanting one. Do you think that I should just stay away from relationships all together?

One last thing. Caffine is really bad for me. I know this, yet I still drink a lot of caffinated drinks such as coke and iced tea. How can I start to get myself out of the habbit of drinking so much caffine?

I would appreciate any help with these specific problems, or just advice in general

--Kayla

Hi Kayla,
I am Mslaine. Welcome..... This is a Great Board. I had a had time also with
Caffine in soda. Coke and Ice tea, it took me a year to make myself drink caffine free and diet coke. Ice tea I stated in College making my own, with decaffine tea bags and decaff green tea bags, I put Equal and lots of real lemon. But it took a year and I after 24yrs once in while crave regular coke and ice tea with caffine. Now if sugar is not a problem for you, you make not miss caffine as much as you may think, with me it make my heart go and it didnt keep me up in college like I thought it would. The sugar problem help me loose weight.
As far as your depression, call you doctor right away to help you get that under control. It is nature to want a boyfriend, relationship and not to be alone. So maybe just date for now. But please call your psy doctor for your depression, it is not you or your fault and the psy doctor will guide you to right path you need. You will be under enough pressure with school, so the deression can be help. I would call right away.
Best of Luck in School and Welcome again....Keep Posting...
Mslaine

Hey Kayla,

I am a 23 y/o with bp. I am a college student too. It can be rough! I had a couple of really bad episodes of bp (depression then mania) and it disrupted over a year of my college studies. And I was only a year away from graduating!

Before I was diagnosed I was doing fine and worked full-time, went to school full-time, was in the honors program, did college band, dated/had a pretty full social life...etc! OMG :eek: I can't believe I'm such a different person! Now I'm only taking 2 classes and work part-time. This illness really does destroy people. I am slowly trying to get better. I just do what I can. And slowly I'm trying to realize that it's ok for me to go to school part-time while others are full-time because they don't have the horrors of bp to deal with!

As far as boyfriends go, I don't know what to tell ya girl! :confused: Sometimes I don't feel like I have the energy for them either. I've really shied away from dating since I've been diagnosed. I guess I'm just waiting for "the one"...whatever that means!

I hope you're feeling better and please post with any questions you may have! There are so many helpful people on this board! It's great!

Sorry if this is too personal, but any chance you take birth control when you have a boyfriend? I ask because for years whenever I had a serious relationship I would get on the pill ortho-tricyclen (sp?) and that would throw me into a depression.