Saturday, April 13, 2013

Spring Mix(ed) Bipolar Episode

You'd think that after an exhilarating weekend racing a Spartan race with the Weeple Army that I'd be on a pretty good high or at least a good mood the week following, however that has not been the case. During that past week I've held in a lot of anger issues, been ill with a recurring cold/allergies/or whatever the hell it is, plus my mood/motivation has dropped to near nothing and I'm doing some unhealthy obsessing.

I'm not sure what's going on...is it just a mood swing or my annual spring depression setting in? All I know is that I'm just not happy with basically everything. It would be easy enough to blame everything on the bipolar but that's just not true, sure it's got a big influence in things but life is just biting the big one overall. Last week when I was feeling this way, but to a lesser extent, I was able to go get some exercise and get the endorphins to kick in beating back the poor mood/depression. This time around it's just hard to get out of bed, let alone go out for a run or even a walk. I have a 10K this afternoon and truthfully, I just may play drop out, get the shirt and man some drinks/fruit for our run/walk club. I just don't have the energy to deal with anything right now.

To top it off the old man's dad and step-mom called yesterday let us know that they'd be here early in the week. They're nice people and at least they did let us know they were coming whereas the old man thinks that his brother got no warning at all. I'm just not in the mood for visitors. All I feel like doing is sitting on my ass or sleeping. I'm still taking my meds, 3 weeks in a row now, but I just don't give a damn about anything.

This is especially not good since I have the Oklahoma City Half Marathon in 2 weeks with my longest run being 8 miles last week. I need to bump up to 10 miles at least before next weekend, luckily I graded down from the full marathon. Then there's the old man whose training has consisted of walking on the treadmill 3-5 miles at a time. I told him that I'd run the half with him (thus the downgrade) since it's his first road race but I don't know if I can go that slow. I'm by no means fast or anything, but I would like to finish around 3 hours give or take, at his pace he'll be lucky to finish before they sweep the course. Yeah, that's one of the things I'm angry about...

At least I have one thing that I'm looking forward to this weekend, the MTV Movie Awards with the Pitch Perfect cast reunion. I actually cleared off space on the DVR to record their 3 minute opening performance. I don't remember when the last time I watched the MTV Movie Awards but between the cast reunion (and my continued obsession with Skylar Astin...I mean really, what the hell is that all about?? He's freakin' 11 days older than my own son! Dude does have a voice that could met the polar ice caps though...) and Rebel Wilson hosting the show should be a hoot.

Other obsessions have cropped up again and have me thinking about racing in specific states just for the hell of it. Really, I seem to be the most content when I'm away from town whether it be with my racing friends or alone. Between the obsessions and the depressed moods most psychiatrists would say that I'm having a mixed episode which in fact is likely. Hell, if I actually drank, which I rarely do now, I'd love to get totally wasted and just pass out. Not to worry though, I'm not suicidal or having any suicidal thinking...I'm just fed up with everything.

Sorry for this downer of a post...it's just where I am now and this blog is a place that I can put everything into words. I do have an appointment with my psychiatrist in just over a week and the plan was/is to switch me over to Abilify in place of my Welbutrin, but considering I'll be running OKC within a few days I won't be making the switch until a little later...well actually probably a couple of weeks later because I have Military Spartan Sprint in Colorado the following weekend. Oh the joys of medication management and running. Later.

2 comments:

  1. other than the wellbutrin, what other medications do they have you on?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Amy! I'm on lithium 900mg (300mg in the AM, 600mg in the PM) doc doesn't want to increase due to the running and risk of dehydration and resulting elevated blood levels, Lamictal 100mg nightly, Wellbutrin 150mg each morning, I'm also on Xanax for sleep/anxiety if needed...currently having to take 1mg nightly to get more than 4 hours sleep. This is an improvement over the 6-7 meds alone for the bipolar I was on at one time. We were talking at my last appointment about adding Abilify to the mix, but with it being an atypical antipsychotic I'm worried because I had been on Seroquel in the past that resulted in severe vertigo...couldn't stand up, spinning sensation all the time, etc.

    I've been on a list of other meds in the past including Topamax, Depakote (hair fell out in clumps), Prozac, many of the older tricyclic antidepressants. The current combo seems to work most of the time, but when it comes to my worst seasons for cycling early spring/late summer and late fall/late winter (I get very little reprieve other when I hit a beautiful hypomania) it's just not holding me steady enough. I see my p-doc in a little over a week and if we decide to add the Abilify in, I'll wait until after the OKC Memorial HM in 2 weeks and Military Spartan Sprint the week after before starting on it. I have at least 3 weeks off from racing then so hopefully we'll be able to fix any problems that I may have with the new mix. Thanks for commenting! :)

    ReplyDelete