Hi, Abby. Yes, I'd been diagnosed as bipolar once, and I have no idea why. I have clinical depression, and I definitely don't have the manic highs. Sometimes doctors know nothing. One psychiatrist put me on lithium. He kept me on it for six months, even though I kept telling him it was doing NOTHING. He got really angry and started screaming at me during an appointment, so I got up, threw my bottle of lithium at him, and walked out. The end of him.

I've been on clonazepam for ages. It's helped the panic/anxiety disorder immensely. But then I started wondering if it was really helping anymore. My psychiatrist is wonderful, and I hope he never retires (he's about 70), and I talked to him about tapering off. He was skeptical and thought it WAS helping me, but he helped me figure out a tapering-off schedule. Unfortunately, as I tapered off, the panic/anxiety symptoms I'd known but hadn't experienced in ages started coming back. So, I'm back on it. I'm on a very low dosage--0.5 mg two to three times per day--but it does help.

I've been so severely depressed in the past that, seven years ago, my psychiatrist strongly suggested that I check into a psychiatric ward. I did, and I was there for 3 1/2 weeks. Amazingly enough, it was a GREAT experience. Everyone else on the ward had severe clinical depression as well, so we all totally understood what the other was feeling. If a medication wasn't working or was having adverse effects, the docs were right there and could take us off the meds or change them immediately. I'm still on the combination of meds that they found for me at the psych ward, and I'm doing well.

Please don't even consider suicide! Yes, I think we've all been there at one time or another. But trust me: It WILL get better. It will. If you feel that you need the help of a psych ward, don't hesitate to go to one. My time in one helped me immensely, changed my life, and got me the right meds. Take good care of yourself.

Hazel