Reddit reviews The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know

Mania's and depressions can be triggered by external events for sure. Both internal cycling and external triggers can cause mood swings. I'm speaking from experience and what I've read in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Bipolar-Disorder-Survival-Guide-Family/dp/1572305258/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324597209&sr=1-14

Yeah, watch out for the rash. I haven't taken it so I don't have much to say about it. It's supposed to be more effective for the depressive end of bipolar than the manic end but can help even things out overall.

Here are a coulple books:

This is aimed at a slightly younger audience than you but it's still really good:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1573244724/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Another must have

http://astore.amazon.com/crazyboards05-20/detail/1572305258

Feel free to stop by CrazyBoards, a mental health peer support forum I help run. (not intending to spam)

Yeah, I wouldn't try light therapy without a psychiatrists help and guidance. But, for me, it's really easy to control mania with seroquel. I use the light for only 10 minutes and only when I'm feeling depressed. If I start to feel mania symptoms it's easy to stop the light. Much easier than it is to stop an anti-depressant, which can also cause mania and takes weeks to get out of your system.

The entire contents of the book are online but it's MUCH easier to read it in book form. Here is the website: http://www.psycheducation.org/index.html

I'm not as well versed in treatments for schizoaffective disorder so I probably can't help much but, there are those who feel that bipolar and schizoaffective are merely points on a spectrum. For me, getting the mania (which can mimic SD) under control was the biggest help. There were times that I had agitated depression or mixed states that were made worse by antidepressants but responded really well to an anti-psychotic so if your doc is trying the antidepressant route and it's not working it may be time to try a different approach.

I guess my advice is to make sure to read some of the better books [Ellen Frank's Treating Bipolar Disorder] (http://www.amazon.com/Treating-Bipolar-Disorder-Clinicians-Interpersonal/dp/159385465X) and [The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Bipolar-Disorder-Survival-Guide/dp/1572305258) and making sure your doc is following those guidelines. Also a course in DBT was super valuable for me. It gave me some coping strategies that got me through the worst of it till we could get my symptoms under control.

So many docs don't pay enough attention to research and make decisions on how to treat based on their patients experience which sounds good in theory but in reality patients are unreliable sources of information. They're biased and subject to the placebo effect and event he best doctors aren't very good at sifting the valid evidence from the invalid that way.

Find someone who is evidence based. I really wish you the best of luck and please message me if you need someone to listen. I've been there and I'm proof that it can get better.