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Disclaimer: I did already leave a message with my doctor, just waiting for a call back, and I know no one's experience is exactly the same, just looking to hear other people's experience. Hi, so I'm feeling pretty hypomanic today, which still feels weird to say because I'm new to understanding this and I'm in the middle of titrating up on Lamotrigine and am still on Zoloft and Adderall. I just went up to 100 today, but was also feeling this coming on a bit yesterday. I definitely was very positive and happy the last few days, but mostly felt even. Then last night, I got into a project and stayed up until 5am and the only reason I went to sleep is because I took Zzzquil finally. I woke up feeling fine, which I know can be normal with hypomania. Thoughts are racing and I'm getting pretty intense and irritable about things. I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience going up in lamotrigine and if when reaching the target dose, it was more effective for both sides of the spectrum. Or do you usually have to add something into the mix for the hypomanic or manic symptoms? Just asked my doctor if we should start going down on Zoloft now since I know antidepressants can trigger mania too, and of course the stimulants as well. So I'm thinking all of these combined as I go up in lamotrigine could be a little dicey and push me over the edge into hypomania.

I have bipolar II, and I have been hypomanic for about two weeks. I would like to come down now, because the lack of sleep is getting to me and I'm not that euphoric or even productive anymore. I'm trying to utilize the extra energy while making reasonable choices to not go higher up, but at this point I would just like to come down and get some sleep. I'm wired physically and sitting still is close to impossible, but it feels like something in my brain is tired and needs to rest. Evidence says I'm not at my best right now, at least I don't code as well as I usually do, even though I have a lot of ideas and every thought that comes through my head feels like the best idea ever. I'm not taking a mood stabilizer and I don't think I really need one most of the time. Most of them wouldn't be worth the side effects, since antidepressants actually helped somewhat with the depressive episodes while not preventing all of them and hypomania is infrequent. I rapid cycled in the beginning, but I don't since switching to Wellbutrin from Zoloft. Also I stopped doing insanely stupid things while hypomanic after I understood what it was and got some practise dealing with it, and I don't tend to crash into severe depression although it has happened. I would have considered cutting the Wellbutrin in half if my 300 mg pills were splittable, which they aren't because they are sustained-release. The only thing I have on hand that could help me sleep is Remeron, but I don't know how smart it would be to take an antidepressant just for the antihistamine side effects. It helped a great deal in the past when I was depressed, so that's why I'm unsure about taking it now. If anyone has ideas about how to get down from here safely and preferably soon, I'm all ears. I could use more than two - four hours of sleep tonight, and the time says that's probably not happening. In an ideal world I would be discussing these things with a psychiatrist, but I don't have one since moving six months ago. I have a therapist, and I have an appointment with her this Friday. I could ask her to ask a doctor to prescribe something for sleep, we talked about it last time I was there, but I don't know what and I won't just take anything. I'm never taking antipsychotics again, not even at a low dose. I have tried four, and I tend to get terrible akathisia at low doses, and then sleep most of the day at higher doses. I got them while I had depression with psychotic symptoms before I was diagnosed bipolar, and they didn't even help with that. The thing is I'm not prepared to take medications with life-altering side effects just to prevent hypomanic episodes that are far between and usually don't end in long-lasting depression. Maybe just a short-acting sleeping pill for a short period of time or something like that. I don't know if the whole antidepressant monotherapy thing is a good idea either considering I'm hearing voices from lack of sleep right now (don't worry, I've been there before), but it's been way better than atypical antipsychotics at preventing depression with none of the side effects and Lamictal literally did nothing for preventing depression or anything else. Any ideas about what I could do after this long ramling post is greatly appreciated. Medication-wise or non-medication-wise.