Meds or therapy

I was diagnosed with depression when i was 10, started shop lifting and had moods varying between aggresive towards family, manic wildness and utter depression. At the age of 10 i started cutting. I am now 39 and was diagnosed with bipolar 2 yrs ago. Then undiagnosed confusingly. My main personality i would discribe as introverted, i have a huge problem talking about feelings and emotions and never told my mother how horrible i was feeling as a child, or even now.However i have an extreme extroverted personality with morals(esp. sexual) that i disagree with. Does that make sense?

My moods are moving very fast at the moment, the worst bein a very scarey edgey and strangely energetic depression. Also when ever i get ill i start tripping and feel no connection with my body or surroundings, sometimes i feel more real than anyone and sometimes less real.I also get unexplained adrenalin rushes. I find it hard to talk but have been very ill on meds. Lithium i workedout to much on, lamotragine they took me up too quick, olanzapine i put on wt which exsasberated my depression and poor self image, and anti psychs made me trippy like i get when im ill, and also too tiree to look after my daughter. I am a single parent ( not suprisingly really).i know this is complicated, i darent go to dr for fear of more meds but i would value your opinion.Could therepy help me or is my condition/s to biologically based and meds the only answer? i hope you can spare the time. Thankyou

I always start with psychotherapy and ask my patients to see a psychiatrist about medicine only when therapy does not help enough. Psychotherapy does not cause side effects, which most medicines give, and which is a problem for people taking medicines. Nor does psychotherapy cause the same risks for tolerance development and addiction, which many anxiety medications have.

A medicine-oriented medical psychiatry doctor might say the reverse, or might say that a combination of medicine and psychotherapy has best effects (which is true in severe cases).

Read the articles in the Web4Health web site about treatment of bipolar disorder and about the pros and risks with various medications.

We do not have any good general article in Web4Health about treatment of bipolar disorder, but this article from another health site may be of value for you.