Dear Mallee,
Yep. Welcome to the world of antipsychotic/BPD medication. I've had 26 yrs of it. At first, 1987 I was a measly 75kg but now, 2013, I am 122kg. Sometime in the mid 90's a medical person explained to me "ah, yes, those drugs are appetite inducing". You reckon ? Plus bad sleep routine means a cheese sandwich and a cup of tea at 2am but, hey, you need something to survive The Love Boat.
From a first glance the antipsyhotic meds probably could be reduced to allow you to function. People are all different and you'll find someone like David Helfott will have a dose just under the optimum so that he can still play piano in a wonderful lively manner and over socialise with the patrons. That's a deliberate choice between him and his psychiatrist. But all these drugs need blood levels, adjusting, etc, as even a drug that is working will eventually get absorbed into your bloodstream MUCH BETTER so that you'll have to up the dose to counter this natural ability. The body simply adapts. I had one dose that got upped to a really toxic level but, as it still stabilised my mood, we stuck with it. Now I am having liver function loss as a result of the months of semi toxicity but as it's the only drug that works for me I have to just monitor and bear it.
Medical history for a psychiatrist might just mean taking your bloods and reading the referral from your GP. The best place to sort out meds is the psychiatric hospital. You'll feel safe and they can monitor without being careless and you get 3 free meals a day while they're observing you. At some point with bipolar you'll be admitted anyway (I've had 30 admissions) so even if this isn't an option now it might be later. On Tuesdays there's movie night and Art Fri afternoon. Lol.
The main stabilising drug for bipolar was discoverd in the 1950's by an Aussie doctor at a Sydney Hospital. Since the drug companies have mass produced this drug that has lithium at the core. You know what ? No one ever said "Hey, let's spend another $200,000" to research WHY this drug works with bipolar". So all the side effects are just swept under the medical carpet. Along with your concerns.
Hope this is some help. The "let's try another drug" is common with psychiatrists and maybe, after trial and error, one will be a good fit for you. Until then prepare to be a disgruntled guinea pig. When they say liver problems they are right on the money. But it's like losing 10% of the function not 90%. And if this drug is giving you 100% of your life back, well...........do the maths. The ones I avoided were the drugs that said "And may cause fatality is some people". Not making this up.
Adios, David.
