Bipolar and The Flu: A Vaccine

I was talking to a friend of mine about influenza. He found some articles online saying "It's Baaaack!" for a second round at this late date in May. It got me thinking: What if bipolar acted like other diseases? The flu comes around every year- this year, twice, apparently. We make our best guess at a vaccine of a number of flu viruses and hope for the best. What if bipolar were this way? We could give a vaccine for it one a year and the symptoms would be at bay- or at least lessened. (The flu shot doesn't prevent the flu 100%.) Would I take it? That's along the lines that I've heard other people with bipolar ask: If you could be cured of bipolar somehow, would you? Most say no, that bipolar is part of them. What if it would merely lesson the symptoms- so the mania wouldn't be so severe, or so the depression wouldn't turn into suicidal ideation, or an attempt? What about other diseases like Ebola? There is no known vaccine, and it is a terrible disease where the victim essentially bleeds internally and cannot move; their insides turn to soup. Luckily, it is not very communicable, or it would be used as a biological weapon, for sure.

But, moving back to bipolar, I'd say its not nearly as bad as the flu, but is constant. That is it has hills and valleys. Right now, I'm pretty much in remission. The flu lasts a week, and if you're lucky, you're down in bed with a fever for that time, and then better. Some people do die from it. Bipolar is deadly as well. We don't have a vaccine, but we do have drugs that are supposed to keep our brains in check. Right now, I'm on Zyprexa and Topomax and Lithium. Zyprexa has made me gain weight and made my triglycerides over 400! (I am going to be taking a statin drug to lower this number, pretty soon.) There are just so many other drugs that I've tried that do not work for me- one made me suicidal and hear voices inside my head: Saphris (asenapine)- that I pretty much have to stay on zyprexa unless something bad happens. Sometimes, bipolar FEELS as bad as ebola sounds- like there is no end, and if there IS an end, its a horrible one. Hopefully, DBT is keeping my thoughts in check, however.

So would I take a bipolar vaccine? That's a difficult question to answer. It would be directly affecting my brain, but then again so do the pills. If it got rid of all the symptoms, I might go for it. On the other hand, look how hit-and-miss it is to guess which flu strains will be out each year. Is it a virus that causes bipolar? Just what DOES cause bipolar in the brain? Right now, we know but we don't know. And does it affect each person the same way? These are questions that would have to be answered, as well as a large study done before a vaccine was available to those of us with bipolar. I don't think I'd sign up for the trials.