bipolar disorder

[rguitar87]

Hey guys,

Was just wondering if anyone else on here has bipolar disorder. I've had it for about 3 years now and I'm just curious how everyone else deals with it. I take seroquel, depakote, and prozac. Also, how does smoking Cannabis help you deal with your illness? Thanks! :)

[slipknotpsycho]

i've been diagnosed with it for like 10 years now.... i only rarely ever had medicine for it, and none ever really worked... remaron helped a little bit, but not by much. weed helps it alot tho, my theory on why (Besides the obvious of it just making you happpy) is it enhances all your senses, thus adding more flavor to life, which in turn, brings my spirits up.

http://boards.cannabis.com/medicinal-cannabis-health/131972-new-information-treamtent-bipolar.html

[chenzotron]

I used to take lithium and seroquel. I smoke any chance i get throughout the day which equivilates to smoking a little over 1.5 grams a day. When I go manic smoking is the only thing that keeps me sane!

[toozlah]

I've never had bipolar symptoms, but I have social anxiety disorder and clinical dysthymia, and I must say that the ganj' is better than any pill! And I don't need insurance to make it affordable!

[Mutant Hippie]

I was diagnosis about 15 years ago. Doctors prescribed everything from lithium and depekote to various antipsycotics. None worked well.

Using Cannabis to treat my BP disorder is at best a crap shoot and seems to be strain dependant. I smoke a little Big Bud and it's more useful than any drugs they prescribed me. Makes me happy without amping out and gettting manic. I smoked some trainwreck lastnight and it threw me into such a depression I made myself go to sleep, but at least i could sleep.

But what do I know? I'm crazy. :)

[Storm Crow]

My Mom was bipolar. I'm just moody. :cool: Pot helps me keep an even keel. For me, it works. - Granny:hippy:

[jdmarcus59]

I to am bipolar, and take meds for it, I dont know if the meds would have ever worked
if i was not given the chance to take them over a long peroid of time, what I mean by that is I had to go to prison and while I was there I had to take my meds every day, the meds
helped me sleep and sleep is a benfit in prison, so I was willing to take them.
now that I have been on these meds for over 4 years I can honestly say that they work
for me. and my life has changed for the better. But before that I used to smoke alot of weed
and I think it worked well as a mood stableliser{ i know i spelled that wrong} so I think that weed can be used to help out with your mood swings.
But I also think that there is a very fine line there. I dont belive that every body should smoke weed, I dont think that it is a cure all efect. I meen if you dont have body pain of
some sort, then there is no reason to take some kind of pain pill, in otherwords if your back
or head ect ect...dont hurt then you dont need to take a pain releaver, weather it is over
the counter or from the doctor.I belive that the reason some people smoke weed is because
for them it works. we all have know those people who try weed, and there like uh I just dont get it. It makes me dizzy ect..but for some people they try weed and go " oh yea this
works for me why didnt I try it before" so for people who smoke weed I belive there is a reason why they are attracted to it.

[napolitana869]

I'm bipolar type 2. I also have borderline personality disorder. I'm on lamictal right now as well as provigil and trazadone. Pot helps the most. I've been on tons of different medications, but I dont like the way they make me feel. The lamictal is mainly for the anxiety.

[sordid]

I was diagnosed this summer, bipolar type 1. I was prescribed Geodon and Depakote, which helped kill the mania but also made me feel like a completely different person. I couldn't remember what I had done even a few minutes before, they sucked major balls. Geodon actually is one of the most intensely bad substances I've ever taken. And every time you start taking it, you spend about a week where you are not only miserable but completely incapacitated.

So right now I'm off the meds, I just avoid the triggers I know (arguing, drinking alcohol, staying up for days etc) and I vaporize about 1/10 gram of pot when I have school (I get anxiety also as a consequence of the bipolar and it helps a lot with that).

I haven't had any episodes since I started doing that, so I'm staying off the meds. I had to change my lifestyle a lot though, no booze, no mushrooms, and I have to keep a little pot on hand all the time.

[The Dude Of Life]

I am bipolar and somewhat OCD, i take seroquel, paxil, and lamictal. pot helps the most tho :)

[Chong Version 2.0]

I've been depressed since I was 15 and I think I am bipolar as well. One week I'll be out and about, doing things, building things, having fun. The next week I'll crash and sit in my room and try to sleep it away. My dad, a GP, says that I also have social anxiety disorder. It makes sense, until I was 20 I was cripplingly shy. All of this has led me to becoming a drunk, which makes everything worse and has caused 8 years of shame. Weed smoothes me out so now I'm growing my own.:smokin:

[absurdity...]

Geodon actually is one of the most intensely bad substances I've ever taken. And every time you start taking it, you spend about a week where you are not only miserable but completely incapacitated.


I have to agree that Geodon is one of the worst pills I have taken, but not for the reasons you listed. It actually worked well initially as far as keeping my mood stable, but recently it caused an episode of dystonia (which apparently all anti-psychotics can cause, but for me geodon is the only which has). dystonia is caused by a depletion of dopamine in the brain and is sort of like symptoms of parkinson's disease. It basically is a loss of control of the body...I was driving one night and my body contorted itself into a weird position and i could not for the life of me move. my head was twisted back, so i couldn't really see where i was going. my arms wouldn't bend the right way, so my car was tending towards the left and i ended up crossing the median on US 41 (a big road) and driving on the wrong side of the road. i couldn't bend my leg or push the gas pedal so i was gliding at about 10-15 mph in a 50 mph zone. i have no idea how i made it home, and i know the only reason i didn't die is because it was about 4 am and nobody else was driving at that time. that was the scariest experience i've ever had, and it was caused by geodon. i'm pretty sure, at least.

anyway, yeah, I have bipolar. I've been on geodon like i said, lamictal which made me extremely dizzy, seroquel which made my brain feel dead, and now risperdal and depakote which aren't doing a goddamned thing.
i feel like weed helps me. when i'm manic, it calms me down, and when i'm having a depressive episode, i stop feeling so depressed. i think that the fact i've had weed at some points in my life has kept me from killing myself (i've tried twice). i'm currently not doing so well but i also haven't smoked weed in like 3 weeks, at least.
i think it's definitely different for each person and we can't make a definitive statement that weed does or does not help with bipolar disorder. everybody reacts differently.