Posted by BarbaraCat on September 25, 2003, at 10:41:46
In reply to And now i jump in! » nmk, posted by chicklet on September 25, 2003, at 2:51:54
Hi Karen,
Barbara here. Provigil - that's interesting, especially about regulating sleep. Do you also have ADD symptoms? I believe I do, since I get very distracted and scattered and then hyperfocussed. Tried Ritalin and hated it. I heard the regular stimulants are ultimately baaad for bipolars even though they initially help with the focus and energy - a stimulant will do that for just about anyone. I also tried adrafinal, a cousin to Provigil, for a short while and felt uncomfortable with the anxiety. But now I'm wondering if I should just stick with it longer...I hate to add anything to my mix since I'm on a 'say no to unnecessary polypharmacy' campaign, but this scattered stuff is really frustrating. I'll start out in the bedroom intending to bring my coffee cup into the kitchen and get waylaid with about 10 things on the way, putting down the cup somewhere and then finding it later in the garage. Stuff like that.
You know, you're the first person I'm aware of who is on such a high dose of Lam. How is that for you? Are you on anything else - still on the mix you mentioned at the beginning of your post? Have you tried Omega-3? I've recently added high dose (9G) pharmaceutical fish oil to my regimen since it's gotten good research marks for helping bipolars.
I'm hoping to reduce my Lithium since it's aggravating my hypothyroid condition. My TSH is ping-ponging up and down. I was on a Synthroid generic and am currently taking Westhryoid and am hoping the T3 in it will stabilize things and take care of some of the energy/ADD like symptoms. Anyhow, your 'case' is interesting. Please keep us posted. - Barbara
> I've been on 500mg Lam for over a year now, and for a long time i had a Lamictal, Trileptal Prozac, Synthroid combo. working pretty well. I have a strong tendency towards the downs of bipolar and pretty much haven't gotten manicky since I was dx 16 years ago. So the fight for me has been the depression.
>
> The Lamictal was initially activating for me but it evened out with each increase. I'm not prone to anxiety (obviously-if I'm on Lam and Prozac), but i was taking Prosom to sleep at night. When the depression's bad, the sleep's bad.
>
> But I had a recent dip in my mood that was reeeealy bad and I just knew this meant "Let's try___" because there's really no where else to go with my levels of each med. My doc put me on Provigil which is used for narcolepsy to promote "daytime wakefulness". Apparently they've seen some promise in it for enhancing the effects of some AD's and MS's and for actually having a mood lightening effect of its own. I take it in the am and within 30 minutes or so (i don't know what's 'normal') I feel nice and awake. During the 1st week on it, i got anxiety, but it went away. Well the point of all this is that the Provigil seems to be regulating my sleep...I take it in the am (kinda works like a cup of coffee), I'm not sleepy during the day, and then at night I'm good and tired and ready to sleep. Without needing a benzo or anything! Too soon to tell much else becauses it's only one week on it, but my mood has begun to improve as well. (it could be just a cycle...we'll see)...just thought I'd pop in and letcha know what seems to have worked well for me...
> Barbara's already more than helped you with all of the other schtuff...
>
> Take care- and congrats on feeling better...oh yeah, and amidst all of your choices and questions coming up, make sure to sit back and revel in your new found good mood!
> Karen
>
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:261445
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030923/msgs/263180.html