Mark B answers:

If it were possible to get better instantly just by willing it to happen, don’t you think you would have done so by now?
Are you taking meds and sticking with therapy? Are you open to doing the hard work it takes to recover (DBT is fantastic, but it requires actual effort and willingness to take an honest look at yourself).
It took a very long time to get to the point you are at now and it takes a very long time to get well. It also takes determination and dedication to being well. DBT usually runs for 12-18 months and for me personally, it helped more than any of the therapies I had tried in the nearly 20 years of treatment I was in and out of before that (since I was 6). It’s dramatically improved my quality of life.
Both bipolar depression and severe chronic depression tend to respond well to the combination of a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant. But, in order to work, they have to be taken consistently and correctly.
This is what I think…you are only going to start to get better after you accept that you are suffering from mental illness and that you can not change it overnight. It is not an easy road, but there is hope. It sounds as though there is a good chance this is a problem that will recur throughout life, so learning the coping skills of DBT can have long lasting benefits. In my experience, in order for therapy to work, you have to connect with the therapist. If you just don’t click, look for another one.
Each episode of depression make it more likely that yet another one will be experienced. By taking meds, you can reduce the amount of episodes and their intensity…which leads generally to a better outcome.
I have bipolar disorder, borderline pd, ADHD, social and generalized anxiety (the list goes on)…I understand the overwhelming desire to just be cured, but it doesn’t work that way unfortunately. It has affected my education & employment, as well as all relationships (including friendships). Actuallly, it affects every part of my life.

Mental illness is a real illness….it’s like having diabetes and wishing for it to be suddenly cured, but not doing anything to treat it….what I mean is,, if you take DBT but don’t use t, it is like a diabetic buying insulin but not taking it.

My son is what motivates me to keep focusing on recovering…it takes baby steps…it’s a lot of steps forwards and backwards slides. Stop expecting a miraculous cure, accept what your reality is (radical acceptance is a very difficult thing to master) and start taking those baby steps towards mental health. Become educated about the illnesses you are dealing with. Comply with treatment. Revolve your lifestyle around being mentally healthy. Take care of yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for what you currently can’t do…it will only get you stuck and perpetuate the cycle.

Mark B answers:

It sounds like anorexia, not anorexia nervosa.
Sometimes anorexia can be caused by illnesses and not something
you want.
Talk to a doctor or trusted adult.
There could be something wrong with your one of your organs.

Mark B answers:

Alls i can tell you is to try and fix it yourself go into everything yourself everything that your having problems with that caused certain things to be this way. I really think your mom should let you get meds i think thats pretty messed up that she wont and i think you should talk to her like really talk to her and tell her everything thats going on. I do know what you mean and its very $%itty i know its like fking hell but you must overcome it and try and fix things for yourself.

Good luck I really hope things start looking up.

Mark B answers:

If i were experiencing such problems, i’d call the psychiatrist’s office back and insist he see me today. You deserve good help.

Mark B answers:

Hey,

You are having panic attacks.
Use these simple steps over and over again until you become the master of your thoughts and emotions.You create your panic attacks not your environment .
Take full responsibility.

I was suffering from panic attacks for 14 years.
I did a lots of research and reading on the subject.

Here is a six-step approach to self-control when dealing with an anxiety attack:

1.ACCEPT–Recognize that you are feeling anxious.Accept your body feelings as a symptom of your anxiety and a sign that something is bothering you.

2.PERMISSION–Give yourself permission to feel anxious about whatever it is that is bothering you.”Of course I feel anxious because…. And it is okay to have anxiety.I know what this is and why I feel this way.”

3.BREATHE– First, inhale through your nose slowly for two-seconds,mentally counting one, one-thousand, two ,one- thousand.then exhale through your mouth to mental count of four-second-again by one-thousands.Do this for at least 60-seconds.

4.INNER DIALOGUE–Use truthful, positive dialogue to talk yourself through the anxious time.It WILL pass. Examples of dialogue might be,”It’s just anxiety.It will go away. I will not lose control.
I can still go about my business feeling spaced-out.It won’t hurt me.”

5.DISTRACT–Get busy.Do something to release some of this self-induced stimulation.Your body is like a car in high gear with the brakes on .Don’t just sit there! Walk,jog, clean closets -but do something.Distract yourself from the way you are feeling.

6.LET TIME PASS– and try to see a little humor in the way you feel.You may feel weird ,you don’t look weird.Give yourself permission to feel weird for a little while. It is no big deal.Try to figure out what is really bothering you. Is it some type of conflict that you don’t want to deal with?Is it a scary thought? Is it a ridiculous expectation you have about yourself? How about the television program you watched last night?What is bothering you?

It takes time and lots and lots of practice.But the only way to stop fearing panic and anxiety attacks is to experience them .Then, work your way through them and begin to see that they won’t hurt you.

There is no need to avoid or fight .

YOU are your safe place and your safe person .
YOU can make yourself feel better.

Feel good!

Praise to Lucinda Bassett !

Mark B answers:

Good! All you gotta do is not do it.

Mark B answers:

Bipolar does NOT cycle second to second.. Not even hour by hour…. Bipolar cycles have to last a very minimum of a week to be considered a Bipolar mood. What you have sound like plain old anxiety… I know it’s not “plain” and it is very disturbung but trust me…. It is not Bipolar. It could very well have been caused by the pot, especially if you are having depersonalization. DP and anxiety often go hand in hand.

Everyone has moods like those of Bipolar Disorder……. Because everyone has mood swings, momentary loss of judgment, likes to go shopping, likes sex, feels down sometimes, gets angry now and then and is hyper on occasion. The difference is that all of these symptoms in Bipolar are so intense that they interfere with your ability to function. Think of a pole (biPOLEr) with 0 at the center (0 being normal) and 10 at one end (manic) and -10 at the other (deep depression). Most people have swings but stay within 3 to -3. I have fairly severe Bipolar 1 but since my psychosis is mild I go from -9 to 9…. Also depression that comes and goes is not bipolar but just recurring depression, you have to have mania for it to be Bipolar….. You have to go to both ends of the pole.

Rapidly changing emotions or becoming angry or sad easily is not all there is to Bipolar. That is just having emotions. People with Bipolar Disorder do not just change emotions quickly, they go through periods of depression followed by periods of mania or elevated mood. Mood affects everything about you…. Your energy level, self esteem, sleep patterns, appetite, sexuality, emotional response, judgment, etc….. Not just your emotions. And while rapid cycling is possible, it is rare. The average person with Bipolar only cycles two or three times a year. It is considered rapid cycling if they cycle 4 or more times in a year.

While everyone with Bipolar has a different set of symptoms and a different severity of symptoms, this is what Bipolar is like for me:

Depression – too tired to get out of bed, shower, even to brush my teeth. Cry all the time, sleep 16 hours a day. Feelings of self loathing and guilt that drive me to think of suicide but I’m to tired to even think about how to go about killing myself. It makes you feel small and worthless and completely insignificant. It makes you think about how big the world is and how meaningless you are in it….. And it refuses to let you have any good thoughts or see any good things…. When you look in the mirror all you see is pain, you don’t even see yourself, you don’t taste your favorite foods anymore, see that flowers are blooming, whether or not the sun is out, you become so inward that you hardly even notice your surroundings….. You don’t even feel love for people anymore…. Positive thoughts are just not possible…… It is a deep dark hole with no way out and no light for hope…. And most of all it makes you feel sooooo alone. And even if there were someone who cared about you they would be better off if you killed yourself……. Because all you will ever be is a burden……. This can last from a couple of weeks to a couple of years.

Mania – Way too happy! PARTY GIRL! Love drink and drugs. Talk really fast and pressured because my thoughts are going faster than my mouth can keep up with. Hypersexual – like I sleep with strangers and guys I just met on the internet or I masturbate 10 times a day. I once became bisexual because there were twice as many people to sleep with. Down load porn and spend tons of money on sex toys. Spending sprees….. I once spent my mortgage money on african violets, yep, $1500 on African violets (then I got depressed and let them all die). Quit my job because I wanted my vacation pay for lottery tickets and I was so convinced I would win that I started shopping and writing bad checks because I’d be rich as soon as the numbers were drawn. Decided that I could replace the furnace in my home by myself… I mean how hard can it be….. Only sleep 2 or maybe 3 hours a night for months on end and never feel tired. In the end I was unemployed, $30,000 in debt, and had almost lost my home, which needed a new furnace because I had removed the old one.. Or parts of it anyway. This can last for months.

I also have mixed states when I am depressed and manic at the same time which are truly the worst… By body and mind are depressed but there is this undercurrent of energy running all the time….. I’m highly emotional but the emotions tend to be negative (guilt and anger) I have intrusive thoughts and urges to mutilate myself (like wanting to stick my hands in the garbage disposal or cooking them on the BBQ), and I also have psychotic episodes where I hallucinate. This is when I am most suseptible to suicide because I am depressed, wanting to hurt myself, and I have the mental energy to plan and carry it out.

When I am on meds I am a normal 45 year old single mom of 3 and no one would even guess that I am Bipolar.

Mark B answers:

Okay, an anaphylactic response is due to an extreme allergy.
If you haven’t had allergies in the past, you are less likely to develop one. But all patients I administer shots to in the doctor’s office have to wait 15 minutes to be sure they don’t react to what I’ve given them. I have seen reactions to medicines, but in the hands of a doctor, you are still safe. We give you meds to stop the anaphlactic reaction. But keep in mind, if you ever take a medicine and feel itchy or rashy, hard time swallowing–that is not normal. Call your doctor right away.

Mark B answers:

What you think youre getting cancer??? I would hope that you are under the care of a physician, and if not you should be.

I am assumeing you are, as you state you are suffering from depression, which can only be diagnosed by a DR.

You need to contact your DR, local community health care facility, or mental health center immediately.

No one here will be able to tell you what to do for treatment, or what to take, people go to college and recieve degrees for that sort of thing, we call them doctors. The fact that you would go to a forum such as this to ask for treatment or medication options is pretty disturbing.

In short and in closing, open up the phone book, or google Dr’s in your area and make an apt.

Mark B answers:

You dont need treatment or proffesionals who just con you.
You need will power, i wont be easy and its not going to work instantly you just need to start introducing yourself to pictures and maybe just looking at one but standing away, it may sound awful to you but its not a mental problem.
I wish you luck!