Dealing With Side Affects From Bipolar Disorder Medications

When taking medications for bipolar or other mental illness disorders is a giant risk in the side affect department.You take your chances by being prescribed a dosage your doctor has no clue if it is going to be good or bad. It takes time, trial and error to find what works best for you. You may be taking other medications for other illnesses, so your doctor has to work around that as well.

It can take weeks or perhaps more for your medication to start working properly. And then it might not work well for you at all. The dosage could be wrong, to little or not enough, or other serious side affects bad enough you can't take the medication at all and need to start all over with something new.

Being bipolar, and having tried ALL the medications. Giving up, or stop taking the medications for good sometimes feels like the right way to go. For some it is the worst thing you can do, but tolerating side affects can be just as dangerous. Medications affect each person in a different way. One person may have every side affect on the label and someone else may have none at all. As I mentioned previously it is all trial and error on the person taking the medications.

There are basically four types of medication that you can expect to cycle through if you are just starting to take meds. These meds are meant to work together with other medications, or on their own.

• Mood stabilizers are the first course of action if your bipolar. Most of the mood stabilizers are used as anti-seizure medications as well. They work to prevent your mood swings of bipolar disorder. They are also used to treat mania and the depression side of bipolar disorder as well. With mood stabilizers you will find many side affects that in time sometimes fade away, or become more tolerable. But that is not always the case. It varies from person to person.
• Sometimes antidepressants will be prescribed if you are in the depressive phase of your bipolar illness. It is very difficult for people with Bipolar 1 to take antidepressants because a lot of them can cause a manic episode to occur.This however is not true for everyone. It is possible you can take both antidepressant and mood stabilizer.
• Anti-psychotics are used in extreme psychosis that sometimes presents itself in bipolar 1 episodes. Anti-psychotics have a high incidence of side affects. Depending on your dosage and tolerance they can be quite severe. If you are having hallucinations, or hearing voices, anti-psychotics may be prescribed along with a mood stabilizer.
• And finally some psychiatrists will prescribe anti-anxiety medications for their bipolar patients as well. If you have any anxiety disorders these medications can work very well. Most have a low incidence of side affects are usually prescribed in low doses.

Please remember all medications can have some form of a side affect. Some subside after time, and others persist. Keeping an open line of communication with your psychiatrist is essential. If he isn't aware of the side affects, he can't help you.