britt

Sorry for the radio silence folks. Life has a way of taking over all my most well-intended projects and this turned into just another example of such, unfortunately.

Since last I posted, which was nigh on a year ago shockingly enough, my bipolar is fairly well controlled, even if I am still on a constant adjustment cycle with my meds. Getting the SSRI out of the picture and getting my sleep cycle normalised is the big challenge still, and we're working on figuring out what ancillary medication on top of my mood stabiliser will take care of the sleep issue. Definitely feeling better of late all way 'round though, so that's something to be thankful for.

As usual, the boring day to day life babble still happens over at LJ, though I'm leaning more and more towards moving over here if only to get the heck away from those TERRIBLE ads and crap. We'll see.

So pretty much since I created this journal I've been pondering what to use it for. It's not the time for me to move journals completely (thought that may happen) but I knew something would occur to me that should have it's own space.

About two weeks ago I was diagnosed with bipolar I, after struggling with anxiety and panic disorders for most of my life. My trusty SSRI was no longer working, I knew I needed a new psychiatrist in the area where I had moved to, and I felt pretty certain I needed some new medication, so I got a referral to a lovely psychiatrist and when she told me that it seemed clear to her that my bipolar genes were showing themselves, it definitely started to make sense.

Still, it's a scary diagnosis. I've seen the damage bipolar has done in my family, and by it's very DSM IV definition it will never be cured, only treated. Being told you have a potentially life destroying illness that you will never really be rid of can be a bit of a shocker, as you can imagine.

So there it is. This journal is going to serve as a record of my journey with bipolar, and will remain public. In doing so I hope that this whole bizarre experience will make more sense to me, and that it can maybe help someone else understand some of what bipolar is and isn't.