What's the best medication for bipolar depression?

My psychiatrist wants to put me on one of lamotrigine, lithium, or lurasidone. I'm apparently a fairly clear case of bipolar depression; I would characterize my mood as ranging widely, quickly, and without warning, but averaging out at melancholy or kind of bored and agitated. I'm not a major psychonaut or anything, but I've also done my share of experimentation, both with classics like LSD, shrooms, ketamine, etc. and less common stuff more of the nature that you see on this board, so I'm not averse to taking something partly out of curiosity or because it will expand my consciousness/broaden the sensation of being alive, constricting as that can already sometimes be. Anyway, do any of you Lains have experience with any of these? Tips or tricks generally related?

not sure, anon, but ive heard lamictal is the first-line treatment so perhaps try that?

>>19612 my father is BPD i am almost certainly undiagnosed BPD >tips or tricks generally related don't take the pills just learn to live with it. as long as you manage alright and aren't an ass to everyone around you, there's no reason to medicate away a (non)issue.

I've been misdiagnosed as bipolar for more than half a decade. Turns out i'm actually borderline. If your mood is capable of changing between extremes in short times, like hours, like you've been sad and happy and again sad during a single day, or same with anger, it is not bipolar. Bipolar is made up of well defined episodes, and mixed episode means symptoms of both depressive and manic episodes are present at the same time, it does not mean you are changing between episodes with a high frequency. Please pay attention to this because many things can be misdiagnosed as bipolar, most of which can't be treated with a treatment meant for bipolar. Another huge red flag of misdiagnosis is that mood stabilizers don't work at all. Of the ones you listed, i would recommend lamotrigine if you're really bipolar. The other two is too hardcore as a start, especially lithium. Also, you have to decide which is your bigger problem, depressive or manic episodes. For manic episodes, valproate is peobably better, if you're a bipolar with mostly strong depressive episodes, lamotrigine is better.

>>19612 Lithuim is kind of too strong, and can be bad for the liver. Had to measure ALT/AST while trying it, eventually switched to lamotrigine because liver was going bad after just 2 weeks. >I'm not a major psychonaut or anything idk, but mood stabilizers have no some like "sensible" psycho effects, at least for me. more like a "background task" that lowers the amplitude of the phases, and their effects are visible only over time. >have experience with any of these I can say that it works fine (lamotrigine), but it's really not a panacea, more like an additional way of dealing. If you can go without meds with a sustainable lifestyle, go without. Also, as far as I know, lamotrigine is used more for depressive cases, and from my experiences I can confirm that. I had no major depressive episodes since I was on lamo. anyways, you can try it, but any effects are really going to be visible on a distance of like 3-6 months, and they really must be compared with a non-medicated period to see the difference. I've tried to go without them at some point (twice), and the contrast is really visible if you don't try to balance it from a non-medication side (lifestyle).

>>19678 BPD = borderline personality disorder BD = bipolar disorder at least that's how I've heard it, but I've even seen a textbook that nonconformed

>>19708 Actually this might be the case with op the way he describes it. Except for being sent to shrinks as a child i never been to any psychiatrist so i have no diagnosis but im positive i have both bipolar and adhd. Indeed bipolar does not swap from one state to the other over hours, but the switch can be very sudden, that is like you said you will have manic days and depressive days, it can shift from one state during the day rapidly, but the episodes themself take a few days. Now its also important to note that bipolar/borderline/adhd are not mutually exclusive and are probably commonly comorbid afflictions, making diagnosis and treatment difficult. Smoking weed is how i keep my mood swings in check and my concentration in order, but it works different on everybody, not just in the way you react to it but when/where/how often/what variaty/how you smoke(or "eat"?) it. That being said bipolar is a real bitch, hope you find something that works for you.

>>19678 >dont take the pills just learn to live with it This I feel is more applicable to anxiety disorders and those sorts of conditions which are, to an extent, induced by your environment and can be sourced from trauma in development. If it's an actual, serious problem in the brain, like Bipolar disorder is, that's different. If it's relatively benign than "learning how to manage it without medication" is a legitimate strategy but if OP genuinely can't function in general society without pills there's only so much you can do. And yeah as the other lainon posted we need to make the distinction between bipolar disorder, which is bad but not the worst thing in the world, and borderline personality disorder, which makes you completely psychotic, and people with borderline personality disorder do genuinely need to be medicated to prevent them from hurting others or themselves.

Long-time schizo here. No meds have ever helped. The only thing that ever helped was getting older and experiencing life more and deliberately trying to control one's mind. Self-discipline is very important in life. No matter what, whether male or female or skilled laborer or bum you will never get away from having to work to survive in some way or another. Once you start to get older you start to get health problems and then life is like kicking dead whales down the beach. It is best to try to get healthy while you're young, desu. It's okay to try meds and see if it does anything good for you, but I certainly wouldn't take it due to external pressure or persuasion from others or be pressured into taking it for any reason. I have a friend going through this right now where she thinks she has to take these crazy meds. The problem is nowadays the meds are a bit different than they used to be. They are stronger and do various new things and the Republicans and the establishment are trying to strangle mental health patients a bit more. My guess is it has to do with social security, but I'm hearing more and more lately that this med or that med is compulsory. For example, my friend gets a show with a big ass needle every month and the bullshit meds they give her every month give her restless leg syndrome and all kinds of weird things. When I was advised to take meds, I took them all to see what would happen. Nothing happen. It didn't fix my schizophrenia, so I merely stopped taking them.

>>19752 Was it your mom or your ex with bpd who hurt you?