How low can you go on antidepressants?

I just started on 2 antidepressants for potential bipolar but they were concerned that it may put me into a mania (primary and psychiatrist- am waiting tentatively for a diagnosis and am undergoing a series of follow-ups while they change things around and monitor my symptoms) Indeed the antidepressants put me into a state of euphoria and sleeplessness. (Trazodone is for the insomnia but it's making me giddy and joyful and all kinds of great feelings along with making me more sleepless.)

Anyway, my biggest (potential) manic episode (they are thinking mania-like stuff) was last summer for a few months, followed by a big massive crash this winter. I've been on SSRI's for short periods of time before but never experienced them for a long enough period to know how your moods can change over time. I definitely run on the depressed side and have had periods of depression ranging from mild to very severe since I was about 12 (fifteen years), so I am certainly prone to it. The mania stuff is newish in the scheme of things. I've been hypomanic for short periods of time before but thought it was from overstimulation or too much caffeine and didn't notice any big crash after.

My question is, do bipolar people with more downs than ups tend to crash after an up every time? Like, what are the chances I crash after a high? Can you have a high independently of a low? (I know you can if you are a generally manic person overall, but I'm generally depressed overall.) And, being on SSRIs, (Celexa pulled me up and out but gave me insomnia, trazadone pulled me way up) wouldn't my body stop me from crashing to really severe low levels? Will the things that pulled me up let me crash again?

Not looking for a definitive answer or help, but personal experiences for people who have been dealing with this a while may help.

I can't really give any advice pertaining to your mixture of medications, since everyone has a different cocktail & different responses to them. But as to your question about the highs & the crash - it's hard to predict what might happen. For me personally, sometimes I'll crash after a high, but other times my hypomania will level out & I'll be at a stable mood for awhile before the depression begins again.

I think it's a little strange that the doctors are suspecting you have Bipolar & yet they are putting you on anti-depressants alone. It's kinda well-known & accepted that anti-depressants alone cause Bipolars to get manic or rapid-cycle or just generally mess with their moods. My psych professor, also a psychologist, practically beat it into our brains during one class: "Never, ever, give a Bipolar person an anti-depressant alone!!" Seems like perhaps your doctors are just experimenting with it to see if you get the Bipolar response to it.

Anyways - I'd say, journal & keep track of your moods & what you're experiencing, along with writing down what drug & dosage you're on during those moods. Could be very helpful in determining with your doctors if you're Bipolar.

- EGD.

Yes, thank you. And yes, the more severe manic symptoms haven't been around long so it seemed like they were pulling me out of the depression treatment that I was seeking, (I told them about last summer thinking I was just depressed "in a different way" which is how it came up) unsure of whether or not I needed a mood stabilizer. Though, they are scheduling frequent appointments and telling me that the antidepressants have potential for putting me into a manic state if this in fact bipolar, (and that sometimes they diagnose bipolar based on their reactions to SSRI's) so they were going to just do that and then monitor the symptoms from there. The initial thought on the trazadone was, 'hey, maybe if we try to treat the insomnia first then the manic symptoms will go away."

Maybe my deceased relatives are really talking to me when I wake up? Perhaps I'm just normal and don't require a lot of sleep? Perhaps everything is just about as hilarious as I'm making it out to be! I'm not sure. My interests become slightly different than normal as well, nothing harmful, just "weirder" so no biggie there.

Anyway, I'll just run it by them and see what they think.
Thanks for the insight about the mania. I would hope to just flatten out and not crash... I'm really sick and tired of being depressed.