Last night I had dinner with an acquaintance from my church. I didn't know it but she also has bipolar. She made a comment that anyone in her family is allowed to question if she is taking her meds if she starts acting oddly. I asked her if she realized that meds can just stop working and she had NO idea that that can happen. I explained to her that my last 2 hospitalization came about because my meds stopped working.

I was first diagnosed in 2007 and I thought that as long as I took my meds ever day, and saw a therapist and psychiatrist regularly I could successfully manage my bipolar. Well in 2010 I was doing those things and my meds stopped working. Now when I'm not manic I know I am bipolar, but when I start to get sick I think I'm just fine and everyone else is mentally unstable. Strangely enough I think I have something physically wrong with me, like cancer. My episode in 2010 spiraled out of control and led to 3 failed commitment hearings, an arrest, and pleading guilty to assaulting my husband. It was a complete freaking disaster because I was compliant so how could I be sick.

With my last manic episode, I had lost over 70lbs, become physically active, and did a career change. I was in the best place in my life..... till I wasn't. I went from successful to a complete mess in less than a week. Luckily, I knew meds could stop working so I was already looking for signs of mania. We caught it fast enough that I only spent about a week in the hospital (over freaking Christmas which sucked), however I am still recovering from it over a year and a half later. I have gained back all the weight and am still mourning the person I was but I am going to be working on myself again. BTW My psychiatrist thinks that the major weight loss was partly to blame for my meds no longer working.

Anyway since I didn't know that meds could stop working and neither did the other person I was talking to I wanted to post my story for y'all.

Take care.