Oh my gosh... I'm the same way. I also can't remember anything or focus on what is going on. Whatever someone is saying or I'm reading or doing literally just goes skiing through my memory bank. So that alone makes it incredibly difficult to focus on anything at all. I get on conference calls for work or sit in meetings and I have no idea what is going on at any given point. Lucky for me, I've gotten really good at faking my way through a lot of stuff. I've never really been called out on any of this. I think people may "know" that I'm not entirely there, but I don't think anyone would ever outright question me on it. Thank god. How would I explain it? LOL

Minor decisions paralyze me. What to wear, what to do next, whether to get the mail or not, it's ridiculous.

I don't know what the answer is. I find that if I wait things out a bit and just let myself have an "off" day, a normal day or a better day will come along at some point. The beauty of bipolar is this lovely cycle we go through. I'm down right now, but I know that at some point, I'll be back up. So sometimes I let things build up because I know when hypomania day comes along, I'll bang everything out and get totally back up to speed again.

If it weren't so crazy, it would be a lot more fun, right?

i understand completely. i used to be that way before i found the right meds. even on seroquel though i was a complete basket case. i couldn't focus on anything... in short, i couldn't function. it's better now =) puzzld

Paul, it sounds like you may be a bit manic now. You may want to report this to your doctor. Perhaps a medication needs to be tweaked. I encourage you to discuss this with your doc.

paulca...all I can say today is good luck and hang in there. Difficulty concentrating has never been one of my problems. Employers usually love my hypomanic phases because I go in work hyperdrive.

puzzld...are you still on Seroquel?

When all this started out, the med put me on seroquel. I was on that for six months...and I was honestly (and objectively) worst off on the Seroquel than no meds at all. I was extremely tired all the time and I put on a lot of weight. Psych judged this as a depressive episode, but the day after I stopped seroquel everything became good again, so I still believe it was the meds. I stopped for a variety of factors. It was making me tired all the time, and I don't like being "under the weather". I enjoy working, and being tired took away any enjoyment and affected my performance. Also, towards the end, i was beginning to experience muscle twitching every two or three hours or so....something I had never had. This also stopped shortly after taking Seroquel.

On Lamictal and feeling good. Meds are good, but they need to be "shopped" for.