Posted by icarusgirl on May 18, 2004, at 10:49:36
hi there all.
just realized i didn't give you any kind of diagnosis. i was diagnosed bipolar 2 back in 1999, though as i get older i seem to tend much more towards the manic side of things and much less towards the depressive side. right now i'm feeling very stable, but having some funny side effects.
so i've been on a combination of lithium and lamictal for the past year. for quite a while they seemed to work really well for me, but about a month and a half ago i started feeling like i was having side-effects from the lithium--deadening of feeling, dizziness, sleepiness, emotional non-reactivity. i've been wanting to try to slowly work my way off the drugs and try alternative therapies for a while, so i took this (and the fact that my moods suddenly levelled out tremendously) as a cue that my body was ready to start going off the drugs.
\
what i've found is that i seem to have to keep a balance of both in my system or i feel side effects from whichever one is still at a higher dose.what i'm noticing right now is that as i've cut the lithium gradually back from 600 mg to 300 mg--which has felt really good, i've been sleeping like a baby and very clear-headed, meditating every morning which helps tremendously, no more emotional numbness--in the past few days i've started to feel some almost speedy side effects. i think they're due to lamictal cause i had the same side effects (but much more severe) last march and april when the only drug i took was 200 mg of lamictal. the side effects seem to be some jaw-grinding, strange clenching habit of the muscles in my face, which i can't get myself to stop doing, holding my breath, incessant fidgeting and lots of obsessive little games like counting cracks in the sidewalk... none of it is terrible, but i don't really want it to get worse. it feels a lot what happens if i drink too much caffeine. (although my mind, luckily, doesn't feel particularly racy at all.)
so i'm theorizing that either i should go back up on the lithium, which i really don't want to do cause emotionally i feel much better since decreasing it, or that i should start decreasing the lamictal a little. (i take 100 mg of lamictal right now. i tend to be very sensitive to drugs, and usually seem to respond to doses lower than the "therapeutic" norm)
i'm wondering if anyone else has had these sorts of side effects with lamictal?
also, just for the record, i'm investigating amino acids and herbs as supplements to help me out through this process, and i eat a very careful diet which seems to help with my moods (and my overall health) tremendously.
one last note: i run a website for bipolar people called the icarus project, which you can find at http://theicarusproject.net if anyone is interested. the subtitle is "navigating the space between brilliance and madness," and it's a community-based site that's home to all kinds of writing and creativity and forums for radical questioning about what mental illness is and how to live with bipolar, as well as how to revision it as a dangerous gift/capacity instead of just a disease. hope it brings someone some light.
thanks so much,
ashley
poster:icarusgirl
thread:348153
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040515/msgs/348153.html