Bipolar Type II Support Group

Saturday, I woke up feeling great... no anxiety, no depression. Yea! I would up going through the day feeling great. I took some Vicodan that afternoon and I think it made me hypomanic (do pain killers do that?). Any way, I wound up staying up until around 3:30 that night and woke up the next day feeling really down.

I have felt bad ever since. This morning I was moderate/severely depressed... crying, etc. My husband has had to take care of things around the house because I can't. I haven't felt this bad in two or three weeks.

Anyway, that's the background. What I would like to know is at what point to you consider yourself stable? Are you considered stable if you wake up with the same low level depression every morning and then it goes away... just the same everyday? Are you still considered stable when you have a few days that you feel bad, but not enough to be considered severe? Are you stable if you have a hypomanic day here and there?

I just keep praying for stability. Maybe I do actually have it... it just seems like it would be better than this. I'm a little confused about what "stability" really means (maybe it's different for different people). Any thoughts?

Yes, yes and yes.

I dare say that a 100% stability, that is, a mood totally perfect and consequently 'flat', is impossible for most people in the world, irrespective of presence (or absence) of any mental illness.

In my humble opinion, we have to accept some our mood changes which are inherent in the human being, of course in certain limits.

Post edited by: Roger75, at: 07/05/2011 12:18 AM

I would not say you are at all stable. If someone went to the doctor because they had depression.. and a year later, they were still depressed.. I would not consider their treatment successful. Neither would I consider someone with BP stable, who is still waking up everyday with the "same low level depression"... Sadness, is normal.. if you have a reason to be sad. But depression, everyday, with no environment cause? not stable, at all.

As you know, I was in the same position as you. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to find an additional Anti-depressant that works. But, I don't feel like pills are the only answer here. I know you and I have talked, and there are lots of things that you can do to help elevate your mood.. exercise.. diet.. etc... I really encourage you to try some of those things...

Anyway, you may have already known all that, but that's the long and the short of it. I am going to die early if I don't get my self together. I've had my pdoc, my primary physician, and my cardiologist all tell me the same thing. I am going this week to look at a new gym that's close to me. It's called Koko FitClub (http://www.kokofitclub.com/ if you want to look it up). It seems really innovative and cool. My parents said they would help pay for it if I would just start doing it and stick with it. So I guess there's no excuse not to do it. I am also going to try to eat better and eventually quit smoking. I can't do it all at once... it overwhelms me.

Thanks for the responses.