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Legendary
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,914
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Legendary
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 18,914
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bipolar and anxiety from Dr. Phelps's web site
Quoted from the web site:
http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/Anxiety.htm
Anxiety as a symptom of Bipolar Disorder
What is the anxiety of bipolar disorder like?
Patients describe it as "agitation", and sometimes that is quite obvious: their foot bounces on the floor while we talk; they pick at their nails; sometimes they can't even bear to sit still and will get up and pace around the office during our interview.
But sometimes the agitation is only "inside": patients experience "too much energy inside my skin", like they're going to "explode", and usually their thoughts are going very fast (sometimes called "racing thoughts").
However, when this is severe, people may not experience that fast thinking, but instead just an extremely disorganized thinking -- not being able to keep their mind on one thing for more than a few seconds, not being able to accomplish anything.
Of course that can make "anxiety" worse as people recognize that they are really ill with something that is not obvious to anyone else, yet they are not really functioning either. How do you explain that to someone?
When this kind of anxiety is present with other manic symptoms like irritability, it can create an awful experience people feel desperate to get out of. (Very often they discover that alcohol can help settle this down for an hour or two. Unfortunately when it wears off, the symptoms come back, very often worse than before.
If a person responds to that by drinking more, that can cause a worsening of the condition over several days or weeks -- but because they get brief relief from drinking, they keep doing it and often have to drink more over time to keep their symptoms controlled. This is a dangerous spiral which is statistically associated with successful suicide attempts, so represents a clear reason to get help as soon as possible.)
Fortunately there are very good medication approaches to this which can help within an hour. Zyprexa has a special role here, in my view.
When this kind of anxiety is present with depression, this may be the worst combination of all. Anxiety is a very strong risk factor for suicide when people are depressed. The future looks hopeless and pointless because of the depression; and the present feels unbearable.
Again, it's important to know that this combination is very treatable. If you find yourself feeling and thinking like this, and you don't have a doctor or therapist to help you manage it in the short and long term, you should take specific steps to keep yourself safe, including going to an emergency room if necessary.
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Antidepressants can make bipolar disorder worse. .gif "Boy(sad)")
Even though antidepressants are a standard treatment for anxiety problems (e.g. OCD, PTSD; and to a lesser extent Social Phobia, Panic Disorder and GAD), most experts agree: treat the bipolar disorder first, then if anxiety symptoms remain, treat them.
There is more on this page about the types of anxiety people with bipolar can have.
http://www.psycheducation.org/depression/Anxiety.htm
Last edited by Mari; 07-17-2007 at 12:40 AM.
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