How Good Bipolar Treatment Prevents Self Medication
Mentally ill patients who have little or no good bipolar treatment for their disorder are prone to self-medicating. They naturally seek a solution to their mental and emotional anguish. If no bipolar treatment is there to help them, they will create their own.
Lithium is the most basic bipolar treatment for hypomania, the milder form of mania. It is also a good treatment for warding off full-blown mania or depression before they start. If patients are given this one bipolar treatment, it may prevent a trip to a drug rehab center. Since drug rehab is not geared to people with bipolar disorder, this is fortunate.
When people who suffer from bipolar disorder feel depressed, they take drugs or use alcohol to try to even out their emotional states. This kind of self-medicating bipolar treatment usually does not work because the drugs used do not actually have a stabilizing effect.
This type of self-administered bipolar treatment is often based on drugs that will cause the bipolar patient to go into rapid cycling. This is a condition within bipolar disorder where the mood goes from high to low and back to high over and over. This will usually go on until there are dire consequences or until correct bipolar treatment is begun.
Depakote, Tegretol, and Lamictal are other mood stabilizers used as bipolar treatment. A mood stabilizer usually forms the foundation of a well-thought-out individual plan for bipolar treatment. When the patient has stable moods, they will have less need to self-medicate to control their moods.
Bipolar patients also have been known to self-medicate when their moods are too elevated. While they feel in excellent spirits, they may also feel a sense of urgency that only some form of bipolar treatment will allay. That is why they often reach for alcohol or CNS depressants. They may have a deep knowledge that they need to slow down.
However, just the opposite is often the case. Patients concoct their own bipolar treatments to enhance the euphoria they feel. If proper bipolar treatment is used successfully, the patients will feel more reasonable and down-to-earth. If their moods are stabilized by bipolar treatment, they will not crash into a major depression afterwards.
One bipolar treatment used for preventing a sudden depression after a manic episode is the use of anti-depressants. With bipolar patients, however, this is tricky. The wrong medication, or too much, can send the patient right back into a manic phase. Some anti-depressants work better as bipolar treatment. Wellbutrin is one.
When bipolar patients have mixed episodes of their mood disorders, they can be overwhelmed by the chaos. Their moods can be changing rapidly and they might have psychotic symptoms. Bipolar treatment must address these issues. Atypical antipsychotic drugs can be used to alleviate the psychotic symptoms. This bipolar treatment also helps with mood disorders.
Along with medications bipolar treatment should incorporate therapy and group support. By supplying proper help to bipolar patients, the inadequacies of their drug rehab options will be less of a problem. Getting good bipolar treatment to patients is an issue that needs attention. |
