7 Answers

I agree with the above, however I would also seek another opinion on your meds and their effectiveness, they are certainly not one suits all and  may need tweeking intil they are effective but they may never, nor should they make you permanently "happy", this is not a natural state for anyone.

Maybe you are changing your medications to frequently,and this is putting your mood all over the place,anti deppresants can take up to 6 weeks to take affect,also you might just need a higher dose.Make sure your Doctor is fully aware of what you are taking and feeling,

I suffer with bipolar i take sodium valproate which is a mood stabiliser and sertraline an anti depressant it often takes time to get correct meds and some suits one person better than another best wishes to you.You may also find help on mdf forum.www,mdf,org,uk  Hope you find that useful.

I have tried everything in pharmacopeia legally and illegally. Some things help more than others and what helps one person may not help another. I examine how I feel. I know what helps and what does not help me. My blood sugar was a roller coaster ride and emotionally went from manic to depressed as a result. Getting that under control took a dietary change that I had to force on myself and follow rigidly . Using candy to control blood sugar levels and moods is deadly.  But that alone is not necessarily the solution to problems. Addiction is deniable but it is also very sneaky in how a person can be quite blind to their state of mind. Going to AA, NA, CODA and other group meetings regularly and working the program regardless of what you may think is going on is enlightening of self and other awareness….our social condition. Beyond that are the doctors realm of neurological exams, MRI scans, allergy tests and so forth. The practical necessity in all of this is that you have to be responsibly involved in your own diagnosis and treatment. Doctors may not know everything about what is going on in your life so keep a journal and write in it several times every day. How you sleep, what you ate, what you did, how you feel about that. Self examinations like this gives you references to your real world experiences which is a precious personal resource.

Advisable to get second opinion on the medications you are having.  My family doctor was good.  Recently I switched to a new one.  The latter is even better. 

I only treated the depressed part so that I don't end up a suicide.  If I am a bit hyper so be it and amen it is far better than being dead...so says my favorite psychiatrist.  I limit chemicals and additives in foods and drinks wherever possible-such as city water-the fluoride is poison as it causes cancer, but also affects health in other ways, especially mood disorders.  The condition I have has been lifelong yet for many years I worked and could recover from difficult periods.  When I was destitute I began drinking city water (my city had been adding nine times the fluoride as other cities)  instead of distilled and that was followed by inability to recover and return to supporting myself (there was no other person to cover this lack, either) and finally had to admit to myself that I had a legitimate disability.  I  just could not get healthy enough to get a job, hold a job and later on could not do a day's work.  Disablity takes a long time to get and the gov. has a lot of nerve denying legitimate claims but a crack addict who is active without intention of stopping self abuse can get it without a hitch, so I believe and see in my neighborhood.  I fault the city and blame them for illegally providing the straw that broke the camel's mind...Yet I thank them at the same time as I desperately needed and still need my disability income.  ...I am better off now - perhaps a year later as-"just for today"-I no longer have no deep dark depressions that I may or may not make it out of alive!.  I had to figure in the toxin FLUORIDE -deliberately added to city water- as the poison that prevented me from recovering.  I am still trying to find others to join up with to protest this harmful practice and force the city to either pay for distilled water or a distillery or simply stop adding this toxin to my water (our water) as it is reputed to cause autism in the unborn child whose mother ingests it and ADD or ADHD in children who ingest it as infants and toddlers on up.  Fluoride definitely causes cancer, especially of the liver (my liver enzymes are abnormal anyway and I do not willingly add this huge risk to my already endangered health) and is used to "control populations" I have read. The goal is to have us work untill we are 65 and then just die...The Chinese psychiatrists have some very good information from their research-especially the harm fluoride causes to those with mood disorders (the theory of the "chemical imbalance" model).  This is very personal for me-a recovering addict who chooses not to use drugs since 1983.  As a human and especially an American the choice remains with me-not the city of Fort Lauderdale.  I resent anyone who secretly doses me or thinks they have the right to dose an entire population without one case of informed and signed consent.  It is against HUMAN RIGHTS to administer drugs secretly or fraudulently and to administer drugs for which there is no therapeutic benefit to the "patient", citizen or customer of a utility....

Robertgrist had good feedback.  Watch sugar intake, no depressants, keep busy, find a faith in God even if you have to borrow mine.  People who trigger unbearable or unwanted negative mood swings or are adversarial must be avoided like the plague-even if it "hurts their feelings" .  Certain emotions can kill people like us-I mean they can lead to our untimely deaths.  PLEASE KNOW there are huge amounts of hope for your well-being, peace, happiness and health regardless of the mountains we may have to climb.  I give you as much of my hope as you want.  I am alive-not a victim of suicide as other siblings becam and bear in mind-much of these "behaviors" or "feelings" 72 hour dangerously depressed mood swings are not due to a "disease" though they cause "unease" and misery and are life threatening; but they are simply a product of being overwhelmed, burned out with stress, being an adult formerly abused as a child, PTSD, and trying to be productive 24/7 among other things.  God said take a sabbath rest, and didn't I know this?  Yes.  There are reasons-things that are good for us-in what God said we should do with and to ourselves..  I still learn the hard way in many cases.  I pray for your health and emotional well-being.  Love yourself and take care of yourself.  It helps and you may need to know that you are special-one of a kind-God doesn't make mistakes and there is still enough love in the world to make it worthwhile until heaven.

Also-writing a "gratitude" list-a list of things in  your life to be thankful for really helps.  I now have a short one I speak sometimes when I get angry and am otherwise in a healthy 'normal" (I hate that word...) mood yet some simple event triggers a downward trend.  I tell myself, "Yeah (admitting or naming the thing or event I focused on and promptly became uncomfortable with my emotion)  but you didn't wake up in a cancer ward today and you can see, hear, feel, taste, smell and all that..God is good to you."

Dogs help me tremendously and I have a prescription for a psychiatric special needs dog.  I rarely go anywhere without one-it is a great response to my current fear and anxiety.  I will not be robbed or raped again and the fear of others doesn't matter since strangers do not approach me due to the sight of one or more of my family of dogs-Boo-Boo Bear, Layla, Dixie, and the youngest-Blue or Mr. Magoo as he is called due to his nearly total blindness.  All are loyal friends and loving "clowns" yet very capable security dogs for protection and are of the pit bull breed.