Hello again! Please share whatever you feel like sharing. Your posts are what makes this community awesome :)

Please share whatever you feel like sharing. Thank you for being a part of this community!

Hi all,

I've been taking Lithium around 8 years now. Over the last few years I've had few odd medical things happening and wondering if any others have seen similar side effects? Doctor can't find contra indications but wondering if these might ring a bell?

1. Itchy hands and feet, I take antihistamines now to reduce symptoms
2. Skin conditions like excema or psoriasis
3. Issues do to with inflammation, e.g I've had cellulitis twice, generally find it hard to kill off infections without antibiotics.

Cheers 🙌🌞😁

In two different groups, people with bipolar disorder were four to six times more likely as people without the condition to die prematurely, the study finds.

By contrast, people who had ever smoked were about twice as likely to die prematurely than those who had never smoked -- whether or not they had bipolar disorder.

In the Prechter cohort, people with bipolar disorder were much more likely to have asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, migraines, fibromyalgia and thyroid conditions than those who had not been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Well, fuck. Sorry for the downer, but thought it's important to share.

This is your space to vent and share whatever you feel like sharing with the community. If you ever hesitate to share, thinking, "no one cares," I can assure you we do! Nothing quite like some love from internet strangers on a shitty day.

Please share whatever you feel like sharing!

The VA has approved me for community care! Instead of a revolving door of unprofessional incompetent clowns who specialize in PTSD, I can select one of the incompetent unprofessional clowns from my community who specialize in BPD!

How should I look for a psychologist? There's like, a lot to choose from here. Most everyone mentions "specialties" like bipolar on their site, in among a bunch of stuff like ptsd and depression and lgbtq issues- Which makes me think they aren't actually specialists, which gives me the impression they'll say just about anything to get me in the door. It's all a bit overwhelming and I basically only have one shot. Once I engage with someone, if they aren't a good fit (my history suggests it will take several sessions before I know if they'll be a good fit, so...) I have to go through the several months approval process for community care again before I can make another selection, assuming I'm approved. How do you weed out assholes, idiots, and the incompetent before you see them?

What treatments have you found to be effective in your therapy?

Also, I'm much better on Lithium than I ever have been, but I'm already coming close to the maximum safe dose- if there is such a thing. The psychiatrist mentioned depakote, but I've tried that before and had severe gastrointestinal problems. Are there any other medications I should be looking out for or asking about here?

Feel free to share anything your heart desires. As a community, we all care!

It's been a long time since I've had a good week, but this one was alright. Not amazing or anything, but just... good?

I had only one major episode, it was entirely private, I went into my car to scream for a bit then went in and felt better. The entire rest of the week went... pretty smoothly? I didn't sit inside all day. I got out and did things. When things didn't go exactly how I wanted to, I didn't immediately seethe or mope. Get this: I worked with people, found solutions, and got shit done. I had fun without overdoing it. I was still pretty impulsive with my food spending, and still struggled with cleaning up and cooking for myself. The two are very much correlated, it's a vicious cycle and the target of my next goal for self-improvement.

I started a "mood journal." It's helping. I should have done this years ago. I should have been given Lithium years ago.

Please share what's happening in your life - anything goes!

How is everyone doing? Share / rant about anything and everything. :)

How is everyone doing? Share and rant away!