Posted by JohnL on September 10, 2001, at 17:34:25
In reply to Re: Doc's Experience with Zyprexa, Lamictal, more., posted by bob on September 10, 2001, at 10:53:11
> ****************************************
>
> A few more questions John, if you don't mind:
>
> What, exactly is your med regimen currently?
>
> Are you still taking Lamictal? If not, why not?
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> Why did you only get to 100mg on Lamictal - what stopped you?
>
> I personally would be worried about using drugs not available in the U.S., as it would seem to me that the supply source is quite precarious! What if one's supply of Amisulpride or Adrafanil dried up and more could not be obtained in a timely manner, if at all? Then a nasty, nasty withdrawl might be faced - no?
>
> You response to my previous queries was very helpful - thank you.
>
> BobHi Bob,
My current regimen is 20mg Prozac, 300mg Adrafinil, 5mg Zyprexa. Maybe once every month or every two months I sometimes experience a sinking spell. When that happens, I have discovered that taking just 50mg of Amisulpride completely fixes it in one day and lasts for weeks. So I take Amisulpride on an as needed basis, which is not very often. It is what I consider to be my life raft. The only reason I don't take it continuously is because it also makes me somewhat impotent. I don't like that. So my bread and butter medicines are Prozac, Adrafinil, and Zyprexa. If I ever need an extra boost, Amisulpride is on standby.The reason I quit Lamictal was because it just didn't seem to be doing much. The only side effect I had was insomnia, which got really bad when I hit 100mg. Not even Remeron could do a good job of overcoming that insomnia. I slept horrible. With the benefit of hindsight however, I can see that Lamictal did indeed smooth out my days and prevent any mood swings. It was helping. I couldn't really tell at the time though. At that time I was more focused on fixing my anhedonia, and not so much concerned about mood swings. I think the culprit at the time that I should have gotten rid of was the Remeron, not the Lamictal. If I ever run into trouble again, Lamictal is high on my list of drugs to revisit.
I do worry about the exact thing you mentioned, that is, not being able to get a refill from overseas for one reason or another. I try to make sure and stock up well in advance, so that if anything does happen, at least I will have a few months supply on hand while I figure out what to do. I hope that never happens. But if it does, at least I will have plenty of time to deal with it and find another source or whatever.
I have stopped both Adrafinil and Amisulpride before, and when I did I experienced no withdrawals at all. So I'm not worried about that part of it. The part that scares me is that anhedonic dark dungeon that begins to close in around me at about day 3 of not taking my meds. That's very scary. The scariest part though is that there is not any drug in the USA that can do for me what Adrafinil does. That's scary. We tend to think of the USA as all there is, but that's just not the case.
John
poster:JohnL
thread:78359
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010907/msgs/78500.html