Bipolar Disorder

[LabRat]

how fast can an 'episode' come on? with or without meds? 2 thurs ago i was talking to said student, and she seemed better than she had in quite awhile. no drugged out look to her expression, shakieness in her voice etc from the meds. then the next day she called in that she was having an episode and was trying to get into the doc. she wasn't in the following week, and prob won't be in much of this one either. she is adament about not being hospitalized this time, they are tweaking her meds while she stays home. i wonder (due to the normalness of her right before) if she was taking all of her meds. the zyprexa has made her gain a fair amount of weight, and she is VERY sensitive about it. because of her neuroscience background, and her nature, i am sure she is one of those playing with her dosages on her own. she admitted to me not long after she came back from the first hospitalization that she was doing so, so i can only assume she is still ocassionally doing it. This is frustrating to me because she is SO intellegent, and i really want her to succeed in her PhD career, she could really do some neat stuff. but on the other hand if she can't get it together, she needs to be moving on...so as not to be impeding other students chances at doing neat stuff. ugh. at least i'm not my boss right now...