Posted: Jul 06, 2014 3:46 pm
Fallible wrote:Orph, did you experience what I've been told is common and contrary to what some might think - if you had any suicidal ideation and if you are comfortable talking about it - that the urge to do it occurs when one has started to pick up again after having begun meds? The thinking is that when you are very depressed you don't have the energy to do anything about it but when you start taking your tablets, for a small window you have both the depression and the energy to carry it out.
I've read that that's often the case, and it makes sense. Similarly (though a bit different), it can be very dangerous to treat someone with bipolar disorder with only antidepressants. The antidepressant must be combined with a mood stabilizer.
In my case the suicidal ideation was never a big feature to begin with. I thought about death a lot, but thoughts of suicide occurred only infrequently. (They were quite disturbing, though.) In any case, I didn't go through the phase you describe – thank goodness. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was that my energy returned very slowly, not outpacing my mood improving. Perhaps ongoing therapy helped. (actually I'm sure it did.)