New doctor, new diagnosis...

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Oh great... I got stuck with a new diagnosis...

Now apparently I'm Bipolar, Autistic and... ADHD!

ADHD was my childhood dx.... But he thinks I need no medication for it...

Lordy... What next....

It's extremely common for autistic people to have ADHD. The conditions are almost always co-morbid.

Which subtype are you?

If you're an adult with untreated ADHD you are likely experiencing considerable difficulty with executive and adaptive functioning, especially if you are also Bipolar.

I just started ADHD meds in March and they've been a big help. Many people on WP have had the same success. I'm just curious why he thinks you don't need meds?

He thinks I'm doing okay without meds, and he didn't give me a subtype.... I don't know how good of an evaluation this was since this was a phone med review... He even took away one of my bipolar meds to see if I have less of a tremor.

I remember back when I was in cross country team in high school, all the way back in 1997, there was a girl on my team who had both ADHD and bipolar. I was wondering ever since if the two diagnoses tend to go together. Kinda makes sense if they do.

As far as not needing medications, I am against psychiatric meds myself. The reason is that their mechanism of operation is blocking the nerve cells in the brain. But that, essentially, amounts to making your brain less functional. Basically the logic is that, if your brain functions less, it wouldn't be able to produce mood swings or whatever psychiatric symptoms you are dealing with. But then you are throwing baby with a bath water. I am sure there are some "good" things your brian does (outside of whatever symptoms you are concerned about). But the meds are suppressing everything indistinguishably. So by taking the meds you are basically saying that the bad things your brain does outweigh the good things. Well, if you truly believe this, does it mean you would prefer to be totally incapacitated? If the answer is no, then maybe you should re-think whether or not you want to be taking meds, since thats what meds do -- except they do the milder version of it -- instead of totally incapacitating you they only incapacitate you slightly. Well, I don't think you really want to be slightly incapacitated either.

I'm non-functional without meds because my moods swing so badly between mania and depression...I'm more functional with them...

Maybe you should look into natural suppliments or diet interventions. Taking meds should be the last resort.

Seems to me that "natural" is often less effective because the dosage is inconsistent compared to something designed for a particular function. And often comes with other chemicals you may not want.

It is less effective, yes, but it also less brain damaging. Preventing brain damage is higher priority than effectiveness. Thats why one should try less effective/ less brain damaging treatment, and only "if" it totally doesn't work, then only go for something more effective that causes greater brain damage.



If anything, the "chemicals you don't want" is what you will have in medications, not supplements. The whole point of natural is to avoid the chemicals.

Caffeine is good for ADHD if you can tolerate it. Not sure how that interacts with whatever they prescribe for bipolar. Also need to watch out for tardive dyskinesia with some of those meds.

Oh do I love my caffeine!! !

Then I send you cheers with my morning coffee!

Also the doctor took me off a med, one of my bipolar ones, and I feel better so far because I was overmedicated (I was on two antipsychotics and now I'm down to one)

See, I told you. Getting off the meds ended up being a good thing, didn't it.

Now, as a next step, try to get off the antipsychotic as well. Antipsychotics are even worse than antidepressants by the way. Antipsychotics are the ones that were originally called "chemical lobotomy".

QFT, you are full of s**t. No, that's too harsh. You are full of overconfident ignorance.

Different places in the brain do different things. Some circuits are excitatory and some are inhibitory. Depending on the symptoms one has, you might want to tone down the excitatory - this can be done by downregulating the excitatory circuits, or by increasing inhibitory ones.

Moreover, it's not the case that meds affect all the synapses in the brain equally. Modern psychiatric meds are much more specific for certain neurotransmitters and certain receptors than was the case 50 to 70 years ago.

Hopefully this comment will not get deleted before your dangerous pronouncements are refuted to the benefit of at least a few readers.

I see QFT's point. What would be best would be a safe and protective environment that meets all her needs.

I had a partner who was just fine as long as I was with her. I would do stuff she couldn't handle, like ordering take out. Or dealing with those nasty telemarketers. But, she needed anti-anxiety meds so we could be separated. It wasn't practical for me to be with her 24x7.

I don't know why some people think brains don't need medicine.

We take medicine for our hearts, lungs, kidneys, digestive tract, and even our bones or our skin etc., but somehow if a brain needs medication it's a conspiracy? Our bodies are one complete, interconnected system. There's nothing mystical about the brain implying it can't respond well to medication, when the rest of our body can. Angnix has already reported that she functions very poorly without her Bipolar meds, so they clearly help. It sounds like her doctor is making wise choices to discontinue one which wasn't needed, but to endorse the other.

Ideally, pmeds are always used in conjunction with therapy.

Good luck Angnix. I hope you start to feel better.