Posted by Susan on October 10, 1999, at 6:02:37
In reply to Re: seizure risk, eating disorder history, ADs , posted by Nancy on October 9, 1999, at 15:06:10
> Yes, and no... :)
>
> The Lamictal start-pack starts me at a level of 50mgs each morning. I conspired to secretly take only 25mgs per day and take it at night.
>
> OK! I know it's sneaky and not completely in line with the bargain that I made with my pdoc. But, hear me with your heart. In the past three- unimaginably-horrible years, in which I was totally consumed and debilitated with a very severe form of Bipolar-1, there's developed an overwhelming and morbid fear that docs and medicines are going to terribly hurt me. If you can just know what horrors I've been put through...I can't even think about it all to discuss in therapy. It's been as traumatic as having the the illness itself WITHOUT having therapeutic advantage of effective meds. In other words, a very large portion of the past three years, I'd have been better off locked in the attic (that is, if any house, here, in Las Vegas had an attic), so to speak, than anything else that was allowed to happen to me.
>
> Do I digress?
>
> Anyway, I'm starting at at teensey dose of Lamictal, because of low tolerance to side effects. Side effects that also are considered "rare"? Well, I've been known to have those, while not even receiving any therapeutic action. Should I mention the three-months of quite attention-gripping jaw pain from a very short stint with Resperidone? Then, as I think about it, there was also Prozac induced psychotic mania. Untreatable. But, did finally resovle itself into ultradian (many switches in one day) cycles and some incredibly painful mixed state episodes. LOL...and just to add insult to injury...On Lithium, I went from a size-1, 110lb and amazingly fit petite figure to a total weight gain of 70lbs in six-months! Yikes...sprinkle that onto an ego and see how fast it shrinks (go to visual: salt sprinkled on a snail...fizzle, fizzle).
>
> To wrap up a very long blurb of a story into, yet, still a long diatribe, the Lamictal has had a very rapid therapeutic onset. The Wellbutrin, as well, has had a quick and pronounced effect. Meanwhile, the Lamictal keeps my feet on the ground as the Wellbutrin's more than therapeutic action threatens to launch me to the heavens of hypomania.
>
> Any questions??? :) Nancy
>
Just a few personal observations. I also started the Lamictal and thought it was the answer I'd been waiting for after only two doses. Then strange things started happening: nightmares that awoke me and my husband because of crying out in fear several times a night, extreme nerve pain in low back, and a paralyzing weakness and incredible thirst (both only at night). After 2 1/2 weeks I stopped the Lamictal and just stayed on the Effexor and Xanax which I had been taking for a year. Two weeks later I tried the Lamictal again and had horrible night terrors for 2 nights.
my pdoc and I decided to ease off the Effexor very gradually. Maybe I am better and don't need Effexor any more! Wishful thinking? Pdoc says yes.
So...I don't know if Lamictal without other meds would control depression and anxiety. Lamictal is supposed to have antidepressant qualities but if sleep is affected as mine was it only increases my depression.
I'll not forget how great I felt or how hopeful I was that first day of trying Lamictal. Just goes to show that meds are complicated, different for everyone and unpredictable.
The only consistently effective treatment I have found is a good dose of Scripture which transforms my thinking, influences my actions and points me to the One who loves me the most. I can't imagine coping with depression without God.
Let us know how the Lamictal works for you.
poster:Susan
thread:12504
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991001/msgs/12950.html