I am on a high dose of Lamictal, the stabilizer with the the bulk antidepressant properties.



I am on Lithium to manage the hypomania and augment Lamictal's antidepressant properties.



I take Omega 3 fish oil as an antidepressant supplement.



I take Seroquel and sleeping pills to obtain a full night's sleep.



I cannot take antidepressants without going manic.



I observe my therapist regularly.



I am reasonably stable and hold a full-time professional job.



This is a typical problem of med compliant, proactive people with bipolar type II. It sucks, and I'd like to figure out how to make it stop.



Any thoughts on how to shake the dysthymia/slight depression?

Tayebird - I'd be institutionalized or turning up daisies if I went with your snake oil, oops I mean juice.

Sound like you know more than the general person.



Good Luck, Be positive.

I am sorry that you're going via this. How long have you been on these drugs? The problem with a lot drugs is that it causes a type of dependency on them as well as your body can build up a kind of immunity to its effects.

I am not almighty on drugs and so I offer a natural remedy to you. Mangosteen juice. I have done lots of research on it and have found it to be Night shift can be totally fine for the body and mind. It is not prizeful for you if you couldnot adjust to it, and still have the urge to sleep at night. awesome. It contains a powerful phyto-nutrient called a Xanthone. From the links below you will observe lots of research on these Xanthones and the effect it has on a lot illnesses, especially depression.



Hope you find what you're looking for...

I have/had dysthymia - I was on Wellbutrin, Seroquel and Zoloft - I've gotten over quite a bit of it by talking out what the root cause was with a therapist - then with the people who helped originate part of the problems.



I couldn't say that this is THE answer - b/c there are a lot factors for me and I'm certainly there are for you. But for me - I am now med free and mostly stable...



Good luck!

I'm not doing NEARLY as well as you, but here are a few thoughts -



A lot of periods the meds don't work right when you have PMS, or if you're older, getting on towards menopause, there are problems. I keep track when I will have PMS because I know I would be in total relapse at that time. I avoid putting things on my calendar then (which I can do to some extent, because I am on disability for bipolar).



I use a light box, one that's REALLY bright. My doc says for a lot bipolar people, they obtain more depressed in the fall/winter. It's best to use it about 1/2 hour in the morning, first thing when you obtain up. You can obtain the Sunray, I used that in a mental hospital, and it was very good. Don't obtain the dinky little lights, they aren't bright enough.



I wrote up a list of happy things to read when I'm down, stuff like a basket of fluffy kittens, the sound of popcorn popping, the scent of jergen's lotion, the feel of snowflakes melting on my face, or the first snowfall on pine trees, that kind of thing. My list is 4 pages long. It helps quite a bit. I also hug my cats and tell my hubby I am needy. I ask for sex when I'm low, even when I don't feel like having it at all, because it actually helps a LOT.



I found that ativan and other benzos, and especially ambien, made me have a LOT of trouble controlling my behavior, and made me very angry all the time, technique beyond irritability. So you may want to observe if you could get by without those pills. After a couple weeks, they don't work anyway, due to dependence. Research that, if you don't believe me. The reason you obtain insomnia when you quit them is due to drug withdrawal.



A wonderful websight is bipolarworld.net, and click on ask the doctor. That Dr. Phelp's guy specializes in bipolar and recently wrote a book on Bipolar II, which is his major interest in bipolar, actually. So you will want to read all his stuff. He really emphasizes regular exercise as a mood stabilizer.



Oh, and I'm going to add, when I obtain busy and don't eat, and my blood sugar gets a little low (I'm dragging a bit), often my mood dives and won't come back up until the next day. so I try to eat periodically and obtain whole grains. I still screw up, but not very often.



I hope one of these thoughts was useful to you. Check out Dr. Phelp's, he links all his stuff to journal articles so you could read the original research.

I hate to break your bubble but dysthymia isn't a mild form of depression it's a incessant depression it's some thing that I've been dealing with since I was nine and I'm 52, there have been periods when the depression has gone into remission and I was able to go off the medicine for years and there have been periods when it's been truly bad and I've had to have been hospitalized for it. It's like any other incessant illness many of how it affects you is based on how you handle it and which medicines work best for you and what for you will set off a depressive episode. I think of it like having some thing like Lupus some periods you don't' know that you have it because everything is amazing and than some things happens and you have a flair, You sort of learn to go with the ebbs and flows And if you don't believe me about the dysthymia ask you psychiatrist to let you observe the DSM IV and look it up.

See bipolar disorder, at http://www.ezy-build.net. (.net.nz/~shaneris) on page 10, and use the treatments for dysthymia/depression, on page 2.