Dr Syl answers your comments: MANIA & BIPOLAR

I can’t get a psychiatrist any where as they cost so much .is there any psychiatrist in Sydney Australia that are free Eg clinics .Hope your exams go okay

You say that most of the time people with Bipolar are depressed, is that what you observe the most? Because I am diagnosed with Bipolar 1, have had a few severe depressive episodes, but I'd say before I started using Lithium the number of hypomanias was much higher.

What's also curious in my case: I was Bipolar 2 when I was diagnosed, I have been on Lithium now for 2,5 years, no depression or hypomania since, but in the last few months I had two manic episodes (both lasting about two weeks), "upgrading" my diagnosis to Bipolar 1. Have you observed something like this before? At the time, it might have been due to my dosage being too low, but it was strange to just experience my first real mania like that.

Keep up the great work and good luck on your exam!

Lack of sleep can dramatically alter your mind in extreme and adverse ways. You may not have a condition but if you choose to over stimulate your mind as apposed to winding down and allowing sleep, even someone who has never had any mental condition in the past, could end up with a temporary mental condition. If you’re lucky enough you could be tagged and plagued with a diagnosis for the rest of your life. It is very difficult to regain trust once you loose it. This could happen to anyone! Just 48 hours of lost sleep, or a week of only a bit of sleep here or there and you are probably doing damage. Of course it depends on the person who are you? You really wanna test it? Get sleep people!

I would love to hear you talk on some anonymous peoples versions of whaat hypomania is to them, coming from clinically diagnosed bipolar 2, that is..not self diagnosed

I would like to know if there is any psichiatric medication, treatment or recent research related to dementia in younger people (54), and how should the approach be for a person who is fast losing its cognitive skills and cannot cooperate with following up on secondary effects of psychiatric meds.

Hi Dr. Syl! I work as a provider for a child who has DMDD and experiences something that I believe may be similar to mania. Do you have any recommendations as to what supports I could recommend be offered in these moments?

Great video! I hate that media glorifies mania, but it’s also hard to explain it to people I feel. I just say that mania means crazy in Greek. It’s not fun

This is a great video, thank you 🙂

To your comment at the end about the love hearts, be aware that you leaving a heart will reduce the anonymity of the comments. A creator heart will raise the comment to near the top of the comment section. It doesn't give the commenter a notification that you liked their comment. You've left hearts on some of my comments and I only saw them when I went to re-watch the video, or when I got a notification about a reply to my comment. The hearts function to help you curate your comments section, it makes comments you like more visible to other viewers. They are not a very effective way to thank the commenter. If you want to do that, replying would be more effective 🙂

The last time I was manic was in October last year when I became toxic on lithium and had to come off it. I had a eurphoric mania and did art non stop for two weeks solid. I wrote 11 zines (mini DIY magazines) and connected with people all over the internet to swap and trade and sell them and I could not sleep for the life of me because if I slept I'd miss out on all my ideas. I'm still paying subscriptions to all the adobe art programs I joined and probably will have to pay them unitl October. It seemed like a good idea at the time anyway. In any case, my seroquel-xr was increased, I can't take mood stabilisers as I've tried them all, and so it took some time but my mania (I was hospitalised) contained itself eventually. Now I have a box full of zines and am still apologising for my behaviour, if only it wasn't so public. I'm glad I didn't get psychotic. I'm well now and are the most well I've been in ages. Don't know why I'm writing this but it just seemed like, here at 4am in Australia, yes I'm doing art and I slept well, but life just feels good now and it's so quiet and calm outside because everyone is sleeping. Nice! Best of luck for your exam. I think you'll make a wonderful psychiatrist when you get there. I'm lucky to have the best psychiatrist in the world. You'll get there, you got this!!!

I've never had mania, but the way you described hypomania seems like something I may need to consider. I've been under an absolute tremendous amount of stress lately and was the first time I considered calling my PCP and telling him something wasn't right with me mentally. Today I am feeling a lot more settled, so I am thankful.

I'm glad you gave answered the question about mixed episodes. i hope one day you can make a video just on mixed episode. i basically only had mixed episodes and depressive episodes, only had mania once, and its why for the longest time i didnt believe my bipolar diagnose, nobody talked about mixed episodes and i could not find information on it online. mixed episodes truly are hell on earth. the worst mental pain ever. thanks for your videos <3 <3

Great video. Thanks Dr Syl.

Two videos in 1 day, we're so spoiled!

Thanks Dr Syl, interesting as always. I'm diagnosed BP2, but was diagnosed during a 2 week inpatient involuntary stay 14 yrs ago. So I guess I should be BP1 ? Anyway, whatever the label I am what I am. I have a niece by marriage, that suddenly started having epileptic seizures. She had multiples per week. Now she has been diagnosed as bipolar. It makes me wonder did the epilepsy cause damage to create the bipolar or did the bipolar cause the epilepsy. I take Sodium valproate as my anti episodic, and it cured my migraines as well.

Hey Dr Syl! Thanks for talking about this – I always appreciate when "my" disorder is delved into as information is power with managing bipolar.

I was diagnosed privately last year at 27, after 15yrs of being misdiagnosed and managed under public metal health care in NZ. My psychiatrist started me on lithium this week as a "last resort" medication – It immediately helped with my depressive episode which was surprising to me, but pharmacologically makes sense given how it interacts with sodium gated channels. Hopefully it will be a good maintenance tool for hypo/manic/mixed episodes too.

What do you do when hormones cause psychosis?
The hormone Prolactin when in high levels can cause psoriasis.

Thx ❤