TL;DR: has anyone taken a low dose of Haldol just to get some good sleep to nip an emerging hypomanic episode in the bud? Does anyone ever just take a little Haldol and go to work the next morning? I think I need to take it but I'm freaked out by it.


 I'm a mid-30s F diagnosed ~8 years ago. I had a mild manic episode (unbeknownst to myself) brought on by trauma, sought treatment for the deep depressive episode that followed, and was diagnosed BP when I had a textbook hypomanic response to the Lexapro I was prescribed. 

I took lithium for several years but it didn't seem to do much for me. I seem to only get hypomanic when I'm really sleep-deprived, often in the warmer months, whether or not I'm on lithium. I haven't had a manic episode since my diagnosis and have been rather stable for years now just diligently managing my sleep and stress under good medical/psych supervision. My only bipolar med right now is 2 mg Haldol prescribed as a rescue med by my psych NP a few months ago when I had a hypomanic episode and just could not fucking fall asleep to shake it for the life of me. I tolerated it well, got some sleep, and got on with my life. 

Well, the birds are chirping, the trees are blooming, work is stressing me out, and here comes the fucking hypomania like clockwork. Sleep seems more elusive the past few days and I'm chatty as hell. This whole post is clearly hypomanic as hell.

 I know I should probably just take the Haldol. In fact, I talked myself into taking 1 mg in the process of typing up this post. I'm just so freaked out by it. I used to work in healthcare/EMS so my main context for Haldol is as a strong sedative used to dart people who are profoundly psychotic and combative. I'm having a hard time getting over the idea of just taking a little Haldol and going to work in the morning like it's Benadryl or something.