Posted by mellow on December 12, 2013, at 19:21:24
In reply to Do Mood Stabilizers Work For Depression, posted by babbler20 on December 12, 2013, at 18:46:27
I've had major depressions with psychosis, dysthymia lasting months and hypomanias. There are several periods in my adult life that I don't like to think about. Lots of lost time. But I have found a combo of a mood stabilizer and an antipsychotic that works very well for me. It is actually low doses of lamictal and risperdal. I feel better than I have in years and I'm out of therapy and only see the pdoc four times a year. Thus is a pretty substantial improvement from even two years ago. I feel like the biggest difference was having some goals in my life like returning to school and looking for a better job.
I also started eating a completely whole food no processed diet and it has made an incredible impact on my mood. Far more than any med or therapy I would say.
So that's the long answer. The short answer is that mood stabilizers are what saved me. I rapid cycled for years on every AD both SRI and NRI. I finally said to hell with it and we took another approach. Sorry for the ramble but my point is that recovery is possible and mood stabilizers provide a great benefit with less side effects in my case.
mellow
Bipolar II
Lamictal 150, Topamax 50, Risperdal 2, Mag Citrate 325, D3 1000, Fish Oil 2000, High Potency Multi, Mega B stress"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
poster:mellow
thread:1056031
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20131209/msgs/1056033.html