Symptoms of Bipolar Affective Disorder

When I was growing up I never knew that I had a problem with depression. I was a shy child but I never had any help from anyone except the teachers at school.

In my teenage years I dealt with depression by drinking on the weekends or " self-medicating". Then I had problems in school with concentration and attendance and family problems that were never addressed by anyone. I cried a lot and lived in total isolation.

With no medication, the situation only got worse and after my first child was born at eighteen I had post -partum depression. It was very bad because it makes parenting almost impossible. I didn't find out that I was Bipolar until I was around twenty -four years old. And they tried me on a medicine that made me allergic, so I went without medicine for years.

Then I noticed that one certain medicine called effexor worked really well for me. If I stopped taking it I would be fatigued and crying again within one to two weeks after stopping the medication.

Now I take it faithfully and it works. But people with bipolar affective disorder need counseling and friends to talk to or their condition will just worsen. It is hard to deal with and they need all the support they can get especially if they have no family support system.