Medication options to help with emotional dysregulation / mood swings

[Sab]

Hi everyone,

I have been struggling with my mental health since forever and spend most of my energy managing it. Things were going better but these past months have been really tough and I am feeling discouraged, tired and hopeless.

I've been considering the option of starting to take medication to help support me with taking care of myself. The main "symptoms" that I'm having a hard time managing are my intense mood swings. They make it really hard to build anything and have an impact on every area of my life (my relationships, my finances, my personal projects and goals, my health, etc.).

If those of you who take medication to help with emotional regulation want to share what type of medication you are taking, how it helped and if it had any side effects, I think that would be helpful to me. I'd like to have an idea of what my options are to take an informed decision. I feel nervous in general about putting stuff in my body and all the stigma around medication makes it hard for me to take that step. I really think that it could help me get back on my feet though and handle basic daily tasks.

Thanks in advance

Sab

 

[Thinx]

Hi, this sounds really challenging for you, sorry to hear what you are up against. But as you say, medications can maybe help with this. I think at a certain level of discomfort and difficulty, medications may well be good to consider, especially when there are a range of possibilities that may work for different people, to find out about.

I am not sure what examples people here will come up with, but I would definitely say, it's worth talking to your doctor about this, as to what ideas they have, or to refer you for a consultation. It's likely that with some element of medication that works well for you, your other efforts to manage your mental health will be more effective.

 

[Sab]

Hi, this sounds really challenging for you, sorry to hear what you are up against. But as you say, medications can maybe help with this. I think at a certain level of discomfort and difficulty, medications may well be good to consider, especially when there are a range of possibilities that may work for different people, to find out about.

I am not sure what examples people here will come up with, but I would definitely say, it's worth talking to your doctor about this, as to what ideas they have, or to refer you for a consultation. It's likely that with some element of medication that works well for you, your other efforts to manage your mental health will be more effective.

Thanks a lot Thinx for your input and encouragement

 

[Aspychata]

Sometimes you need them to overcome a hump. Usually six months to 9 months. You will then feel it might be possible to wean yourself off. I hit a severe depression when l suffered from something for 4 years. But now that l have been thru that identical situation, it's doable now.

 

[Sab]

Sometimes you need them to overcome a hump. Usually six months to 9 months. You will then feel it might be possible to wean yourself off. I hit a severe depression when l suffered from something for 4 years. But now that l have been thru that identical situation, it's doable now.

Aw, I'm glad it was helpful to you to medicate short-term and that it allowed you to get to a place where similar challenges didn't have as big an impact on your mental health. I'm hoping it will affect me in a similar way. What is hard is when small things get me really depressed for days, weeks, months and unable to connect and enjoy what I've worked really hard at building for myself. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Aspychata]

Aw, I'm glad it was helpful to you to medicate short-term and that it allowed you to get to a place where similar challenges didn't have as big an impact on your mental health. I'm hoping it will affect me in a similar way. What is hard is when small things get me really depressed for days, weeks, months and unable to connect and enjoy what I've worked really hard at building for myself. Thanks for sharing.

Aw, I'm glad it was helpful to you to medicate short-term and that it allowed you to get to a place where similar challenges didn't have as big an impact on your mental health. I'm hoping it will affect me in a similar way. What is hard is when small things get me really depressed for days, weeks, months and unable to connect and enjoy what I've worked really hard at building for myself. Thanks for sharing.

Well l guess l was blessed to have a beautiful spirit in my life. Otherwise l would be looking for meds.

 

[ForestGumpett]

Hi;
Please be careful and check behind your doctor. Before I’d let them give me anything have your blood checked for the level of serotonin or dopamine FIRST. The doctor didn’t test me first, and I was poisoned by the serotonin. It was horrible, made me mean and actually messed up a few relationships.

Come to find out my emotional issues were all caused by a medical condition that the doctors were unaware of.

Just wanted to give you a heads up, pills are not always the answer and could complicate things. If your in the states sadly the doctors here are all taught to write prescriptions more than how the body actually works and how to heal it.

 

[Sab]

Hi;
Please be careful and check behind your doctor. Before I’d let them give me anything have your blood checked for the level of serotonin or dopamine FIRST. The doctor didn’t test me first, and I was poisoned by the serotonin. It was horrible, made me mean and actually messed up a few relationships.

Come to find out my emotional issues were all caused by a medical condition that the doctors were unaware of.

Just wanted to give you a heads up, pills are not always the answer and could complicate things. If your in the states sadly the doctors here are all taught to write prescriptions more than how the body actually works and how to heal it.

Hey! Thanks for your advice. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with medication. It sounds like it was really stressful and I'm sorry to hear it had an impact on some relationships. :/ I am definitely cautious whenever navigating the medical system because of how not holistic the doctors approach sometimes is and how little time they can spend with each individual to really understand their bodies and needs. I'll keep your advice in mind whenever I start that process and appreciate you for sharing.

 

[Richelle-H]

Just thought I would give you some perspective on my search for stability by way of medications. Not that I was actually searching for something most the time pre-diagnosis, it was just life conspiring to push me in directions where my understanding of the psychiatrists reasoning only left me somewhat bewildered.

At one time, decades before my diagnosis, I was diagnosed as Schizophrenic. A much too broad category considering the myriad ways that can be expressed. I was just severely depressed at the time, and the doctors had little time to spend with me, and so I was prescribed both Stelazine and Thorazine on a daily basis for some months. Needless to say, I had bad reactions to both of those after taking them for about a month. They were essentially making me a tad psychotic. That episode engendered a distrust in the psychiatric profession for many years after the fact.

Once I was diagnosed with Asperger's and entering the ring to battle high anxiety once more, I was prescribed an SSRI. Those did not do anything other than make me highly verbal and prone to yawning excessively. Once I told my psychiatrist about the problem I was having, and that my major problem was situational anxiety, I was prescribed Clonazepam. I still take it to this day, as needed, but over the years I have needed it less and less.

Part of that comes from learning that the only opinion about you that really matters is your own, and you should not let neurotypicals dictate that opinion in any way. You learn to walk through the world to your own rhythm. Sure that causes friction at times, but it has served me well in the latter part of my life. I do not define myself by what others think of me. I know who I am, and am proud to display that in all its intricacies and nuances.

I hope you find something that helps, but in the end it all boils down to being completely comfortable with your self and avoiding situations that you know will only make you uncomfortable. Finding a drug that will do what you hope for is a gigantic crap shoot, but only through persistence with your therapists and doctors and being completely honest about your experience will you have a chance of the relief you are looking for.

I'll stop now lest I fall into perseveration.

Be well!

 

[Sab]

Just thought I would give you some perspective on my search for stability by way of medications. Not that I was actually searching for something most the time pre-diagnosis, it was just life conspiring to push me in directions where my understanding of the psychiatrists reasoning only left me somewhat bewildered.

At one time, decades before my diagnosis, I was diagnosed as Schizophrenic. A much too broad category considering the myriad ways that can be expressed. I was just severely depressed at the time, and the doctors had little time to spend with me, and so I was prescribed both Stelazine and Thorazine on a daily basis for some months. Needless to say, I had bad reactions to both of those after taking them for about a month. They were essentially making me a tad psychotic. That episode engendered a distrust in the psychiatric profession for many years after the fact.

Once I was diagnosed with Asperger's and entering the ring to battle high anxiety once more, I was prescribed an SSRI. Those did not do anything other than make me highly verbal and prone to yawning excessively. Once I told my psychiatrist about the problem I was having, and that my major problem was situational anxiety, I was prescribed Clonazepam. I still take it to this day, as needed, but over the years I have needed it less and less.

Part of that comes from learning that the only opinion about you that really matters is your own, and you should not let neurotypicals dictate that opinion in any way. You learn to walk through the world to your own rhythm. Sure that causes friction at times, but it has served me well in the latter part of my life. I do not define myself by what others think of me. I know who I am, and am proud to display that in all its intricacies and nuances.

I hope you find something that helps, but in the end it all boils down to being completely comfortable with your self and avoiding situations that you know will only make you uncomfortable. Finding a drug that will do what you hope for is a gigantic crap shoot, but only through persistence with your therapists and doctors and being completely honest about your experience will you have a chance of the relief you are looking for.

I'll stop now lest I fall into perseveration.

Be well!

Hi Richelle-H,

Thanks for taking the time to share. When it comes to mental health, it's so hard to identify the factors that come into play. Norms and expectations definitely have a big impact, and I agree with you that it's so important to learn to be comfortable with who we are and to make our life one in which we can show up as fully ourselves. It's difficult not to get caught in the trying to "fix" parts of ourselves to better fit in a place or situation instead of searching for the places/people that are made for us. Sometimes I find it hard to untangle all of that, especially when sometimes there is a more immediate need for survival.

I appreciate your insight

Sab