tragicallymoody

Hi Everyone!

I'm so happy to have found this board. There's nothing better than feeling like you share in something rather than being all alone and lost. Thank you all for that!

I was just recently diagnosed in October. My Psychiatrist thought I may be Bipolar and then sent me for an official assessment at camh (centre for addiction and mental health). The psychiatrist deemed me Bipolar II with rapid cycling. I had been on 120 mg/day Cymbalta & 150 mg/day Lamotrigine for depression, stabilizing mood and migraines at the time. I was going completely off the wall cycling between manic and depressed. It was several times a day to a week. At the same time as locking myself in my room for several months I would come out at night and displayed some classic symptoms of mania. I nearly ruined my marriage of 8 years and had been unable to cope with raising our 4 year old daughter.

I feel finally at peace in a sense knowing what to "label" myself as. I have always had issues....depression diagnosed when I was 16. So it had been half my life thinking that all of this was just depression and me being a horrible person. I knew something was going on with me as far back as when I was around 11. It all makes sense now and I can look back into the times when I was manic and times of severe depression.

My current medication is Divalproex sodium (750 mg/day) so far and Cymbalta 60 mg/day. I think the Cymbalta may still be making me cycle. Because after being on the new meds since Sept 9th the mania hasn't stopped yet. I'm waiting to be admitted to a womens inpatient program for 4-6 weeks. I feel like I'm hanging on pins and needles waiting.

Does anyone have advice about Cymbalta use? Or perhaps about the open inpatient experience. I would really appreciate anything you could offer!!

Thanks