@lisalucier I found a couple of studies cautioning against prescribing antidepressants to bipolar patients. Especially Effexor, the one I was on. One was on NIH, and the other BMJ. So they were peer reviewed. Unfortunately I didn't bookmark them and haven't been able to relocate them. But my psychiatrist was aware of them. I was actually the one who brought them to her and said "This describes the last few years of my life. Almost to a T."

I'd only begun to see her after a then recent bipolar diagnosis. I'd previously been prescribed the medication by my general provider. She told me she hadn't seen the reaction previously in her practice, but after seeing the change in me after getting off of it, fully agreed that I had been hijacked by it. She said she's now using what she saw in me before I stopped taking it as a reference point so that if she sees a similar response, she can hopefully catch it. So there's evidence.

Psychiatry is the most difficult of all medical fields, and I told her I feel no resentment over her initially missing what was going on (it was within just a few months after I began seeing her that it was discovered). She switched me to Lamotrigine, and after a lifetime of several depressive cycles a year that had become nonstop and had reached the dangerous level by the end, I've had absolutely none for the last two. So I'm confident the new medication is working. I suspect I'm one of her favorite patients since on my quarterly visits I now arrive in a cheerful mood every time.

I've also stuck with counseling. That's been a lifesaver as well, and have no present plans to call it good and quit.