Hey guys, I’m new here. A little over a year ago I was diagnosed Bipolar 1 w/ psychotic features but since I’ve had some paranoid delusions while moodwise feeling great and stable, last month I was diagnosed as schizoaffective bipolar type. My psychosis consists only of delusions and paranoia, but I think I may be experiencing some negative symptoms as well.
Thing is I can’t tell if it’s an onset of a depressive episode, my meds, brain damage from disease progression, or negative symptoms. At the moment my mood is great, I feel like myself before the onset of my symptoms two years ago. I’m on 1200mg Lithium (0.7 blood level) and 7.5mg Zyprexa and my mood is definitely stable and my psychosis, while still there, doesn’t have as much power over me as before. But unfortunately I’m experiencing terrible concentration issues, lack of motivation, and anhedonia. I can barely read without losing focus and feeling overwhelmed, even articles on the internet or forums much less books. I can’t bring myself to go to the gym, and I feel this resistance to basic hygiene like showers, brushing teeth, and changing clothes.
I was looking at supplements, and at the moment I take the basics like magnesium, Vit D3, Vit K, B Complex, zinc, fish oil but I’m overwhelmed when it comes to the advanced stuff and honestly I’m a little worried of being sucked in and compulsively spending on these supplements. I bought NAC but I honestly don’t know if it’s doing anything, tempted to buy sarcosine too but not sure if I’m being obsessive.
I was also looking into ADHD meds, but I’m worried that they can send me off into mania, plus idk if my pdoc would even deem me eligible for them unless I had ADHD.
Sorry for rambling, I’m just flustered because while the main obstacles have been fixed it’s hard to be happy when I feel so dumb and apathetic.
Sorry to hear you’re going through this. Ive been through similar myself. I will say that my negatives have improved gradually since the episode 2 years ago. I dont know if this is relevant but was your onset gradual or sudden? Mine was sudden and i hear that has a better prognosis. I too had initially been diagnosed as BP 1 but i kind of sensed that i was sza all along, just my own self diagnosis. Ive tried a bunch of meds but the one that works for me right now is 3mg rexulti and 225 lamictal- but i plan to come off lamictal because rexulti helps with depression. All i got to say is it should get better, just be patient. Concentration issues are still there, but im able to get out of bed each day and take care of myself fine. Good luck!
Glad you found a combo that works for you. Do you mean the onset of the negative symptoms? If so that seems very sudden, I also isolated a ton but that has gotten better fortunately. As for the psychosis itself, I’d say it was gradual. I definitely had some psychotic moments during my first 9-month long manic episode, but it became a regular thing gradually until it started happening outside of mania.
I hope it gets better, man I feel like such a shell of my former self. It’s humiliating when I used to do so well in high school, now I don’t know how I’ll ever make it when I just can’t sit down and do my hw
Sarcosine is a food supplement that is good for concentration and negative symptoms. There is information about it on this site. I buy mine at www.brainvitaminz.com.
The combination of l-theanine+coffee is supposed to help with cognitive issues. L-carnosine is supposed to help with negative symptoms and some cognitive issues.
Wow these look really interesting, hope it won’t take too long for them to go generic. Thank you so much, it’s good to see that we will have more alternatives in the future
Thanks, just ordered it! Also saw the sticky showing it, definitely looks interesting. Apparently it also has synergistic effects with NAC which I’m taking right now (haven’t seen any effects from it yet, unfortunately)
Thanks, unfortunately caffeine messes with my lithium levels so I’ve tried my best to avoid it. Not sure how effective L-theanine is without the caffeine. L-carnosine looks interesting though, I’ll take a look at it