Is bipolar genetic? What are the chances I will also be bipolar as my mom is bipolar 2?

I feel depressed due to my childhood traumas, it started back in covid and since then it is growing. The healthcare system here sucks as they rush to give medicines..any test or guidance will be helpful here. Feel free to ask anything. I am a male

For context, I have AuDHD and Bipolar 1, and I've been identified as highly gifted/2e. I'm currently taking 18mg Concerta, 10mg Lexapro, and 1.5mg Rexulti, though I've been offered sulpiride for my psychosis and mania.

Thing is, I'm a long-time follower of Dąbrowski's theory of positive disintegration, and I want to wean myself off medication in order to achieve positive disintegration. I know doing it cold turkey is risky, but I want to wean myself off meds until I can safely make the jump and achieve ego death. How can I do this, and is this safe to do?

Hi to you all humble people,

I am recently exposed to a whole new life challenge. I am sure it is not new in the history of humanity, but very new to me.

My brother has gone into the path of addiction. He is 33 yo. He is educated. He is jobless and lacks motivation. He started drinking since he was 25 yo or so. Since last two years, his drinking has become as regular as 180 ml whisky per day. He has reached to the point of failed liver and recurrent seizures. We started de-addiction medication for him. He continued it for a month, his blood routines showed improvements. But then, he lapsed again.
We started limiting his pocket money, so, he recently drifted toward cheaper options. Last, I gathered from mother that he might be doing some hard drugs. This is unverified.
I have been planning to send him to a rehabilitation center, for, he is beyond our control.

The challenge is that, I do not live with him. He lives in my hometown with my mother. I cannot move back and help him recover. Nor I want to bring him to my current place, for I do have a full time job that I cannot quit. I am the sole provider for the family.

I need help with navigation the situation.
I am currently residing in Hyderabad, India. My brother lives in Prayagraj, India.

1. Shall I send him to a rehabilitation center?
   
2. If so, which ones? I looked up, and every single one I inquired about had concerning negative reviews either about ill-treating the patients or having a few people there enabling the alcohol or drug under cover.
   
3. Is bringing him to my place and leaving him alone (while I am in the office) in a non-native city, where no-one speaks the language of his, a good idea? Will it deteriorate his situation?
   
4. Will bringing him closer to me compromise my capabilities to deal with the situation objectively?

I dont feel overwhelmed, but definitely, feel a rush to extinguish the situation as soon as possible.
I also know, I shouldn’t simply act unless I have clarity and a better hold of the situation.

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

if this isn’t the right place, i understand, and i apologize!!

tdlr: psychologist diagnosed me with major depressive disorder with psychotic features and psychiatrist diagnosed me schitzoeffective. seroquel is making me exhausted and i am not sure i even need to be on it. i’m in my 2nd year of graduate school and cannot afford to feel tired all the time while still having symptoms and am extremely tired and frustrated. what should i do?

hi, so i am someone who recently started seeing a psychiatrist and psychologist as i, later found out, am experiencing psychotic symptoms and feelings of ascension. i went to see the psychologist first (she is wonderful and i love her) and she highly recommended me to see a psychiatrist ASAP for an antidepressants and an antipsychotic.

saw psychiatrist and she diagnosed me with schitzoeffective disorder and i was on a few meds before getting seroquel and today prozac (i had bad side effects and an allergic reaction to the last antidepressant). the seroquel has been working… kinda, but the tiredness is just messing me up, especially since i am in a high-pressure situation where i cannot afford to be sleepy.

i don’t even know if i need these meds!

i am wondering if i should seek a second opinion for my diagnosis and med choices or just trust their judgement. the whole situation is making me more stressed out and at this point i am just tempted to stop the seroquel even knowing the consequences.

what should i do??? i feel so lost and i don’t know where to find a psychiatrist for a second opinion (if needed). thanks in advance

I'm struggling with severe task paralysis and executive dysfunction. Most days I can't get anything done.

This was my first time seeing a psychiatrist after 2+ years of not treating my ADHD.

Background:
History of generalized anxiety and a childhood ADHD diagnosis

Adderall and Concerta both worked very well for task paralysis and executive dysfunction, but the appetite loss and irritability outweighed the benefits

Strattera did nothing for me

My psychiatrist raised my Lexapro to 20mg and started me on 1mg guanfacine ER. He also gave me an ADHD evaluation packet for a relative to fill out about me.

I'm 9 days in and haven't noticed any change. Is guanfacine actually helpful for inattentive ADHD? I've heard a lot of people say it doesn't do much for task initiation or attention.
I'm getting really frustrated. I want my task initiation back, and I'm worried my psychiatrist will just keep raising the dose and it still won't work, by which point I'll have gone months with this.
Why did they choose guanfacine when my primary concern was task initiation and executive dysfunction?

I'm not thinking of anything specific, but have you noticed any differences in how your male and female patients respond to the psychiatric medications you prescribe?

My psychiatrist just outright told me I'm impossible to treat and he won't try anymore even though I haven't tried more unconventional methods like rTMS for example. Do I just look for another psych?

I injured my lower back years ago… I think the urgency may be from that, I’m not sure if it’s something else..but anyways I’m on psych meds ( topirmate, abilify)and I seem to have lost some control of my bowels. I have had many many extremely close calls getting to the bathroom. And after these close calls I have had a lot of trouble pretty much to live a normal life. I just exist on disability, and I barely leave my home, it’s no way to live I’m so sick of it. Drs seem to brush off the problem every time, could my urgency be caused by depression? Something fixable? A medication switch?

My first panic attack happened when i was 11 and since then i have anxiety (bad one) and panic attacks, at 16 i was prescribed paroxetine 20mg and flupentixol 0.5mg for brutal anxiety and phagophobia (fear of choking). Im weird i know, but bear with me, after i got prescribed these drugs i felt amazing (my parents say that for the first 2 weeks i only slept and ate, no memory tbh of that time) i ate, i slept everything was perfect until january this year (currently 25 years old male) i started having trouble eating again, i ate soups for 2 months and i decided to go to a therapist once again, and i was switched to zoloft 50mg trazodone extended release 150mg at night and flupentixol 0.5mg, i started eating again and not having trouble with ejaculation from the paroxetine, which was new, anyways, this April for the first time in my life i got insomnia, where i didn’t sleep for 14-15 days (then i researched it, and i probably got those micro sleeps) it was hell and i was working at the time so my body was exhausted and i couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go to the doctor once again, but he was on a holiday, so i went to another and he switched from trazodone to mirtazapine, i started sleeping, but i felt really funny during taking this drug, so i went again and i was put on Olanzpaine (zyprexa) 5mg at night and it hit like a truck, it took 2 days and i was sleeping like a baby for more than 10 hours a day and my appetite, wow, just wow, never in my life i had such appetite, i ate every 30-40 minutes, i gained like 10kg in a month, i had brain fog and memory problems, but i was so happy that im finally sleeping and eating, so i continued to take it until ONCE AGAIN i started having trouble eating, i started having panic attacks ONCE AGAIN every time i ate, so slowly i became scared to eat and started to eat less and less, so i decided to go and tell what the problem was, (at the beginning august) so i was prescribed trazodone 150mg instead of zoloft, 100mg at night and 50mg at morning, and from them its been really only a downhill, started having trouble sleeping and more anxiety than before so my parents were like go to your old doctor, i was like fine and i went at the middle august and i was prescribed clomipramine lowest dose i don’t remember what it was instead of trazodone 150 mg and instead of Olanzpaine 5mg i was prescribed quetiapine 25mg at night and ohh my god i started sleeping no more than 3-4 hours a night, crippling anxiety where i was even terrified of the thought of eating, it was so bad that even swallowing liquids was hard and made me uneasy, i ate no more than 400 calories a day and some days i ate nothing, so you can imagine i was feeling like I’m about to faint all the time, anxiety was at its highest, felt like i was gonna die every second of every day, just existing was painful and awful, i couldn’t get out of bed for most of the time, nothing could take my mind of everything, not my girlfriend, movies, music, video games, NOTHING. So i went again (just writing this is making me think ohh my god what a year) and i was prescribed this little devil (as i am finding out) Olanzpaine again 2.5mg for a week then bumping it up to 5 and trazodone extended release 75mg for a week and than bumping it up to 150mg, well for that week when i was on half of the doses i slept really good, i still had anxiety and trouble eating but i slept, and then i bumped up the doses after that adjusting period and suddenly insomnia returned stronger than ever, so after 2 weeks of hell i went again and i got prescribed Zoloft 75mg normal trazodone 50mg at night and Olanzpaine 5mg and guess what guys, GUESS WHAT, again nothing changed i still slept like 1-2 hours a night, a good night was 4 hours and when i mean i slept, i mean after rolling in bed for hours, barely sleeping for 1 hour than waking up and then again again rolling for hour and again a little sleep and the cycle was the same, so i went again after 3 weeks and got prescribed pregabalin 150mg instead of trazodone and atill the same, i felt like little improvement where i now sleep 4-5 hours, and for the longest time i thought everything i was experiencing was from the insomnia, then i started reading about Olanzapine (Zyprexa ) and i realised the drug is for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. For 4 months now i barely sleep, even though ita a little better and the thing is this - since i started Olanzpaine(Zyprexa) again my memory is soo bad that i dont remember a movie i watched 15 minutes after watching it, cant remember conversation 10 minutes after happening, i cant tell you what i did with my girlfriend yesterday, I JUST CANT REMEMBER, its like it didn’t happen at all, i have trouble keeping conversations going, because i cant tell barely express myself and genuinely i have 0 thoughts in my head, even writing this is hard for me, i can barely formulate a thought, reading is hard, i cant comprehend information, cant really process any kind of information, from reading, watching, listening, it doesn’t matter, its like i became a retard, absolutely nothing brings me joy or pleasure, not even the movies i loved or the books i loved, not music, not socialising, not even my precious girlfriend who i love to death. I became this souless person went to another so called specialist, i was told some kind of intoxication, got some kind of benozo at night instead olanzapine and Zoloft swithced the same day i was prescribed and i havent slept in 2 days and i dont even know what I’m feeling anymore.

Hello!

I’m posting here (F, 36) because I’d like to share my experience with SSRI side effects and ask for advice.

Let me start by saying that I’ve never been distrustful of conventional medicine or followed conspiracy theories. Still, what happened to me will most likely strike you as unusual.

I was prescribed sertraline at 50 mg (starting with six doses of 25 mg) after I gave birth to my daughter in May. She was born six weeks early, and I had concerns about her health and kept ruminating about what had gone wrong with my pregnancy, etc. Three days after starting the medication, I lost genital sensation. Maybe it's an important detail: I’ve always reached orgasm through syntribation rather than regular masturbation, and during partnered sex, I’ve always needed to be in the spooning position so I could clench my legs. My clitoris was never particularly sensitive to external stimulation. It was always that deep, internal sensation that gave me pleasure. That disappeared, but it wasn’t genital numbness as typically described in PSSD. It was more like a loss of that deep sensation. Surprisingly, my vagina still felt sensitive, but it was as if it were a cul-de-sac leading nowhere pleasurable.

With my psychiatrist’s approval, I stopped taking sertraline after two weeks.

Six weeks later, I noticed that the sensation was returning, but only when I was stimulating myself, and it felt more like genital tingling than a genuine emotional response, especially in the morning. I was also having trouble sleeping and noticed that I was processing alcohol differently. I no longer felt the pleasant relaxation it used to give me. (I’m not breastfeeding due to lactation issues.)

I found a psychiatrist familiar with PSSD, and we decided to try vortioxetine, especially since I was struggling with apathy because of the issues described above. Fortunately, my husband was a great help with our daughter, and she’s an easy child.

After just one 10 mg dose of vortioxetine, I experienced almost immediate genital and emotional numbness, followed by a panic attack. I couldn’t sleep at night, and for the next two weeks, I needed quetiapine to sleep. (I still had a supply that had been prescribed earlier for sleep problems.) Every day, I woke up hating my life and struggling to do literally anything. I became increasingly emotionally flat. For example, I stopped enjoying cuddling with my husband. Sex became completely sensationless, although enough sensation returned for me to reach orgasm on my own, but in a strange way: the G-spot seemed to be completely shut off, and I could orgasm simply by clenching my labia, as if only the lower part of my clitoris were still functioning.

Since then, my emotional blunting, anhedonia, and apathy have progressively worsened. The only thing that improved was sleep. My genital sensation has continued to decrease to the point where sex brings me no pleasure at all. Reaching orgasm on my own is now only possible once every few days and requires enormous effort. It’s almost painful and the only purpose of it is to release the tension caused by genital tingling.

I eventually reached a point where I could barely get out of my bed. I was prescribed bupropion two weeks ago, but it has only helped me do things like a robot. It hasn’t changed how I feel.

My maternity leave lasts until next June, but I’m scared I won’t be able to work. I experience suicidal ideation every day. I literally feel nothing. No love, no pleasure in anything, except perhaps very late in the evening, when all three of us go to sleep together: my husband and me in our big bed, with our daughter next to us in her bed. Maybe it's just because a bit of rest comes after a whole day of nothingness.

I miss love. I miss the sense of reward I used to get from working hard. I miss pleasant sleepiness and the feeling of being safe and cuddly. I miss how caffeine used to wake me up (it no longer has that effect). I miss every single day of my life. I got married last year to the most wonderful man for whom I waited all my life and I thought we would grow old together...

Do you have any idea what happened to my brain? Could this be irreversible PSSD? Is there anything I can do? I’ve had bloodwork done, including hormone and thyroid tests, and I’ve had a brain MRI. Everything came back normaI. I also did pharmagogenetic testing - I'm apparently a fast metabolizer for sertraline. It was only a couple of pills… I'm hearing from psychiatrists that it's impossible for such low doses to cause so much damage.

Does modern psychiatry have any solutions for me?

So, I went to see a psychiatrist about a month ago and was prescribed aripiprazole, lorazepam, and sertraline. At first, I took the medications as prescribed, once a day before meals. Everything went smoothly for the first two weeks, but one day, after I woke up, my tongue suddenly seemed to have trouble coordinating with my speech, it's like I cant speak "s" properly like I used to. I haven't experienced any other symptoms.

I continued taking the medications as prescribed, and I'm still taking them now. I'll run out of medication in four days and will need to get another prescription.

Should I talk to my psychiatrist about this, or should I continue taking the medications as prescribed? And Has anyone else experienced something similar? If so, how did you deal with it?

The compounds do cross the blood brain barrier. So logically, can you tell how much someone loved garlic by smelling their experience machine?

Hi, I am a 20-year-old male living in Italy.

To give a bit of background on my medical history: I had a cerebral hemorrhage when I was 9 years old. It left me with some physical issues, but mentally just a bit of bad short-term memory. Considering the average outcome, I got lucky there.

I am currently taking (daily):

• 30mg Paroxetine
• 100mg Pregabalin
• 100mg Lamotrigine

Just for context on those medications: I took Pregabalin years back for a period of around 2–3 years as pain relief for some chronic pain in my left foot, and as an anticonvulsant. but stopped taking it for that reason many years ago

I also did psychotherapy for around 2 years (from ages 16 to 18), then stopped and spent a few months with a psychologist (around 4 months, ending in August). (Note: In Italy, there is a distinct difference between a "psicologo" and a "psicoterapeuta," but in English-speaking countries, people generally just say "therapist" or "counselor" for both, with "psychotherapist" being the more specialized term, having compleated a 4 years post master degree study).

I’ve had some ups and downs over the years. My question is: whenever I visit my psychiatrist (roughly every 3–4 months), it feels like he is always increasing my medication and never decreasing it. I have been seeing him for about 2 years, and during this period, whenever I reported having ups and downs...

My worry is that I will just continue in this spiral of endlessly increasing my meds without ever tapering off, eventually ending up on a massive dose of medication forever. (I’m not afraid of medicine in general while I was in the hospital, I took a ton of things due to complications from the stroke, intensive care, etc.). I am just scared of the continuously increasing number of medications prescribed.

I know this is a complicated medical history. Thanks for reading and for any advice!

Hi everyone.

My journey started in June 2023 with anxiety and OCD. Two minimal meds did nothing, and there was little psychiatric support in my area, so I traveled far from home for help — but things only got worse. Doctors escalated me from 5–6 medications a day to as many as 14, and every time I said I felt worse, the dose just went up. I was completely unaware of what the meds were doing to me.

At one point, a relative suggested homeopathy in another area, and — not knowing how dangerous it is — I stopped the antidepressants cold turkey. I was suicidal for 12+ days. I will never forget it.

I then restarted the meds and have been on Venlafaxine for the past 1.5 years — currently 262.5 mg (75 mg morning + 150 mg night + 37.5 mg night). But the side effects — drowsiness, itchiness, debilitating dreams, intensified anxiety — took over the show. My actual anxiety and OCD are manageable with exposures; it's the medication that has been hindering my recovery all along.

Recently I tried tapering: my doctor cut the 37.5 mg tablet in half (18.75 mg down), and severe withdrawal hit almost immediately — suicidal thoughts, intense flu-like symptoms. I went back to the full dose, and even 15 days later I still get withdrawal flares on and off.

So I'm stuck: staying on the meds = tremendous suffering; withdrawing = tremendous suffering. Has anyone tapered from a similar dose? How did you manage the withdrawal waves, and did a slower method (percentage taper, liquid titration, bead counting) work for you?

Thank you for reading — wishing everyone here the best.

I'm now 29 (M). When I was in my senior year of high school, around 2016, a mutual friend at a party told me about a new type of smokable drug being sold legally at a tobacco shop in Hollywood. He described it as something between weed and acid: a type of tobacco that got you significantly higher than marijuana, bordering on a psychedelic experience, with effects lasting only about 20 minutes.

Soon afterward, I went to the shop and bought some. It came in a small, transparent plastic screw-top container and contained a greenish, finely crumbled plant material that looked somewhat like weed but didn't smell like it.

I smoked it out of a regular weed bowl and immediately experienced an immense sensation of pleasure and sensory euphoria, far stronger than anything I'd experienced with marijuana. I didn't hallucinate, but everything became extraordinarily vibrant and vivid. Objects in the distance almost resembled a colorful pop-up book. The effects lasted approximately 20 minutes, just as my friend had described.

I remember my friend calling it "mullein," and I recall seeing the name "Green Mamba Dokha" associated with the product at the shop.

What followed was approximately 4–6 months of regularly buying and smoking this substance, multiple times a week, probably dozens of times in total. It was a dark period of my life, and I deeply regret it, particularly because I had no idea what I was actually consuming.

I've since learned that mullein leaves were sometimes used as a base for synthetic cannabinoid products. That same friend also told me sometime afterward that he'd discovered what we'd been smoking was actually K2/Spice. I largely ignored this at the time, perhaps out of denial. I can't independently verify exactly what the product contained, but I strongly suspect it was a synthetic cannabinoid.

Here's where my concern begins.

Around 2018, approximately 1–2 years after I stopped smoking this substance, I began developing what has since become extremely severe and debilitating OCD. Over the years, it's gradually gotten worse, with occasional periods of improvement followed by renewed deterioration. As of today, it's genuinely ruining my life.

My OCD primarily revolves around an overwhelming, constant fear of brain damage.

For years, I've regularly convinced myself that even the most minor physical events could cause a concussion or permanent neurological injury: driving over a pothole, tripping on a sidewalk, someone playfully slapping me, a car braking suddenly, or even moving my head too quickly. I've become afraid of running because I'm convinced that the repeated movement could somehow injure my brain.

Environmental pollutants are another enormous trigger. I'm constantly worried that I'm breathing in fumes, toxins, or gases that might be damaging my brain. The smell of paint terrifies me. Car exhaust, unfamiliar chemical odors, and even the possibility of mold can send me into intense periods of anxiety and obsessive rumination.

I also experience more conventional OCD symptoms, including excessive handwashing and repeatedly worrying about whether I've locked my door.

I cannot overstate how profoundly this condition has affected my life. I live in an almost constant state of fear, spending an enormous amount of mental energy obsessing over potential threats to my brain. I'm exhausted by the end of almost every day.

My family has spent an extraordinary amount of money trying to help me. I've undergone TMS, participated in a supervised psilocybin clinical trial at Yale specifically investigating OCD treatment, taken several psychiatric medications, and attended months of psychotherapy. Unfortunately, none of these interventions has produced meaningful, lasting improvement. I've been on prozac, trintellix and abilify for several years now.

My question is whether my history of suspected K2 use could have contributed to the development of this condition.

I understand that synthetic cannabinoids have been associated with serious psychiatric complications, including psychosis, anxiety, and cognitive disturbances. What I'm struggling to understand is whether repeated exposure during late adolescence could plausibly contribute to a severe psychiatric condition that develops a year or two after cessation and progressively worsens over many years.

I'm not claiming K2 necessarily caused my OCD. I'm aware that correlation doesn't establish causation, and I know OCD can develop independently of drug use. But given my history, I can't help wondering whether that period of synthetic cannabinoid use could have played some role.

Has anyone encountered research on this, experienced something similar, or worked clinically with patients who developed long-term psychiatric problems following synthetic cannabinoid use?

Any informed insight, particularly from people familiar with synthetic cannabinoids, psychiatry, or OCD, would be deeply appreciated.

I am a 29 year AMAB with a history of chronic depression, anxiety, and OCD. I may or may not be somewhere on the Autism spectrum. I have a history of substance abuse and suicide attempts. I have been sober for over a year thanks to MAT treatments, which I completed using Sublocade. I don't want to take a benzo, so im prescibed Clonidine and Cymbalta. It works decently (though I have to take a good amount of Clonidine to calm down), but I still struggle often with strong negative emotions.

I have recently done a deep dive into the world of psychosurgery and read about this procedure, it seems to be potentially life changing for me. I have blow ups at small inconviences, I am however able to function decently. Job, place I rent, car, etc. I sometimes get so low I self harm, or have suicidal thoughts. Or have major freak outs over small things. Is this surgery as potentially life changing as it seems to be and if so is it something I should bring up to my psychiatrist? Will I just seem crazy for thinking about it?

I'm not sure how to explain what I'm going through, but I'll try my best.

For years, I've felt like my brain never truly rests. I constantly have thoughts running through my mind, and I can't seem to stop them, even when I genuinely want to.

The strange thing is that when I wake up after sleeping, my mind usually feels fresh and calm. But as the day progresses, the thoughts start coming back, and my brain becomes busy again. It feels like I can't get even a single minute of mental peace.

I overthink almost everything. Sometimes I worry about my future, studies, career, and things that could go wrong. Sometimes I replay past situations or conversations in my head. Other times, completely random thoughts pop up without any apparent reason.

When I try to stop thinking about something, it often feels like I end up thinking about it even more. One thought leads to another, and before I know it, my mind is occupied with dozens of different things.

It's affecting my concentration, making me mentally tired and restless, and leaving me feeling overwhelmed and irritable. Even when I'm not doing anything particularly stressful, my brain doesn't seem to switch off.

This has been happening for years, but lately, it has become much more intense. I'm reaching a point where the constant mental activity feels like a heavy burden, and I'm honestly exhausted. I just want some peace in my own mind.

I don't know whether this could be anxiety, rumination, intrusive thoughts, or something else. I'm not trying to self-diagnose, but I really want to understand what's happening.

I'd really appreciate hearing about your any advice on what steps I should take next.

Ok so yesterday i found out that my lil sis still has her benzos for anxiety and i spent 30 mins looking for them but i didnt find them. Today i accidentaly found my older sister benzos and took 7x 1.5mg of bromazepam and dont really feel anything.
Why?

I came across a page of a psychiatrist who owns a clinic offering TMS, psychiatric consultations, and aesthetic services all under one business. While I recognize that there may be ways to maintain appropriate boundaries between psychiatry and aesthetic medicine, I can’t help but feel that combining them raises several ethical concerns and creates some rather ambiguous gray areas.

***This post is not intended to be critical or judgmental, but rather comes from a place of genuine curiosity and a desire to better understand the ethical considerations involved***

My psychiatrist once said that the brain during a psychotic episode undergoes damage similar to that of someone with dementia.

Please help me. I am 27 F been on SSRIs since 2021, only one that worked was Prozac.

When I got depressed on Prozac I was switched to Agomelatine, which made me cry everyday. I was also put on aripiprazole, which made me angry and like I was "burning in hell". I was placed on Lamotrigine and it helps with anxiety but feels like a sugar pill. I was placed back to Prozac and the daily crying spells stopped, like a pacifier to a baby.

For the past week I have still been crying nearly daily from thinking about active suicidal intent and a breakup which happened a year ago. For the past weeks, all I do is consider whether to end things or not.

I am diagnosed as a mood disorder but it changes between MDD, PDD, with anxious distress or with mixed features (still trying to see if it is mixed). My long-term therapist already gave up on me.

I cannot work properly because of grief. I cannot listen to music without feeling grief. Only TV helps the grief disappear.

What can I suggrst my doctor or therapist to try? Please help me. It is starting to feel like my final moments here and even weekly therapy and daily crisis line calls are too short.

PLEASE HELP!!
I’m looking for some advice from people who’ve experienced something similar.
I’ve been taking fluoxetine 20mg for 76 days (11 weeks) and escitalopram 5mg for several weeks. Fluoxetine initially helped my anxiety quite a bit, and I noticed a genuine improvement in how I felt.
However, over the last few days, I’ve started feeling uneasy again. It’s hard to explain, but it’s not exactly a panic attack. It’s more like an internal feeling that something bad is going to happen, along with weird body sensations and overthinking. I just don’t feel as settled as I did when I was improving.
I’ve also been dealing with significant back pain recently, which has reduced my activity levels.
I’m confused about what’s happening. Could this be anxiety returning, a side effect of either medication, or just a temporary setback during recovery?
Has anyone experienced something similar after initially improving on antidepressants?
Also, since I’m still experiencing these symptoms, should I discuss increasing escitalopram from 5mg to 10mg with my psychiatrist, or would it be better to wait and see if things settle down?

i took risperidone before bed for 7 months until sep 28th (0.5mg)not knowing i was physiologically getting dependent on its anti histamine and sedating properties to fall asleep. prior to this i didnt have notable sleep issues aside from a delayed sleep phase that would begin in the early morning and have me waking during the afternoon. i began abilify (2.5 mg, taken in the morning) sep 29th and overtime struggled with sleep. on a good day i could take my melatonin and magnesium biglcyinate and sleep lightly but sleep nonetheless. on a bad day id take 1/6 of a 25mg seroquel for no more than 2 days consequtively. i could resume with melatonin and magnesium and sleep lightly the following day. i’m now at a point where i’ve taken 1/6th of seroquel to sleep everyday for a little over a week. before this point i learned i could take benadryl for sleep but unfortunately found out too late that it would lose effectiveness within 3 days. when i took benadry i skipped seroquel, one night i took it with seroquel and ever since the seroquel is less effective (waking up after 2-4 hrs of sleep) i’m at the point where i now have to take an additional 6th of seroquel after waking at night to fall back asleep. i dont enjoy taking the seroquel because im sedated during the day even taking this small amount. any ideas on how to proceed with sleep?

And if they do, were they born or made? How would you know your talking to one if your a female?

I hope this is the right Subreddit for this question…

I (24F) was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 a little over a year ago after a pretty nasty mixed episode that ended with a 2 week vacation at my local psych hospital. I’m better now ! Taking my meds, therapy, 8 hours of sleep, regular exercise, etc.

I recently made a career switch. I was in school for nursing but now I am on the pre-med track. The people around me don’t think I can do it, but I want to be a surgeon (undecided on specialty). I told my family and they thought I was manic when I brought it up.

So, I was just curious to know if there are any surgeons out there that struggle with bipolar disorder and how you navigate that. Am I being too ambitious?