lessthanhalf said:
msyntakz said:
I was just about to start a fresh thread, but then I saw this one about Bipolar disorder! My Bipolar-1 diagnosis came close to 10 years ago, and finding the right medication has been a long struggle — 1 of them led to liver failure. Right now I take a combination of Wellbutrin and Abilify, and that combination appears to be working.
Even so, I would really like to eventually stop taking it. I strongly suspect that my extremely poor physical condition played a big part in bringing this on. At the time I was diagnosed, my weight was at its highest. With Tirz I've seen something similar — it has felt like the most effective mood stabilizer I've ever tried, and when I added a small amount of Reta it lifted me somewhat out of a flat state. There's no sense of being caught between depression and mania. It's amazing!
What I want to ask anyone who has used this over the long term or been through a physical transformation is: once your body has healed, can the disorder be kept under control without medication? Body and mind are so tightly connected, so I can't help wondering and hoping.
My situation isn't bipolar exactly, but from around the start of high school I went through pretty serious depressive episodes. Across many years it shifted from coming in episodes to being more continuous, and with treatment it became far less intense, though certain symptoms have stuck around long term, like anhedonia and poor motivation. I've tried just about every antidepressant available, whether by itself, combined with others, or alongside augmenting agents, and at 1 point I also had ECT, which I think kept me alive. These days I'm quite hesitant to change my long term medications, since being stable has real benefits, while stopping and switching everything carries risk and probably wouldn't help anyway.
My weight and my mood have always been connected, and they tend to be at their worst at the same time.
Back in 2022 I weighed 145kg, had stopped working because of depression plus covid, which together destroyed my business, I had to sell my house, and I was staying at my ex's place, which was a trashpile because of her hoarding. I'm still grateful she let me stay, since I had nowhere else to go then. In a way it helped push me, because I had to do something to leave, and I couldn't have bought a new place or taken care of one if I had. Even basic shopping was hard, and walking more than 50 m left me exhausted. My physical health was in a bad state too.
So I began a diet: 1600 kcal/day, low carb, very high protein and low calorific density. Over the following year I got down to 75kg, and by walking I slowly built up some basic fitness, at least enough to move around and do things, so I could buy somewhere to live and finally get out of there.
At the time I thought GLP drugs were out of reach because of the cost, and I wasn't employed. Still, losing almost half my body weight gave my mood, thinking and ability to function a big boost, probably at least as much as any antidepressant ever did. The weight loss didn't really fix the long term anhedonia and low motivation, but it did help my mood and overall functioning quite a lot. Based on what I've been through, I have basically no interest in risking coming off antidepressants; maybe they aren't doing anything, but maybe I'd spend a year or more severely depressed, cycling through medications until I found 1 that worked, if I tried to stop.
My guess is that stopping mood stabilising agents with bipolar would depend somewhat on how severe the episodes were. If the manic episodes were putting you in hospital, or causing financial ruin or legal trouble, I'd argue for being very careful, and even then doing it with professional guidance and review might be wise. 1 issue with mood disorders, though I haven't experienced the manic side, is that you don't always notice things going wrong right away, and it can get bad before you realise what's happening. I've seen that with depression, and I'd expect it to be even more of a problem with mania.
After that I started prescribed low dose ozempic, which wasn't too expensive in Aus, but I felt more or less nauseous and a bit ill for the year I stayed on it. It was still worth it just to be less hungry. Luckily I found cheap chinese GLPs through this forum and switched to tirzepatide 15mg, with far fewer side effects and better appetite suppression, then I added a bit of reta as well, 5mg. No clear mood effect, but it made sticking to my diet and keeping the weight off much easier. I'm at 65kg now.
