Posted by Nancy on October 9, 1999, at 15:06:10
In reply to Re: seizure risk, eating disorder history, ADs , posted by Susan on October 7, 1999, at 20:45:13
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
> > How interesting, St. James...I just had this exact information drilled into my stubborn Scottish head by my pdoc YESTERDAY afternoon!
> >
> > I've begun 100mg, b.i.d., Wellbutrin to my existing regimine of 300mg Effexor, Synthroid and Cytomel. But, my pdoc adamantly refused to allow this additional AD unless I agreed to also take an AE (like Lamictal, yadda yadda).
> >
> > This pdoc's concern was for the infamous "siezure threshold"..."everyone has a seizure threshold"..."we're particularly concern with those whom have an history with anorexia/bulimia"...
> >
> > So, I agreed to the compromise. Within 24hrs, I seem to have popped right out of a dark and desperately fatigued low mood swing.
> >
> > Good Luck All,
> > Nancy
> >
> So you are taking Lamictal? If so, I would like to compare experiences.
poster:Nancy
thread:12504
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991001/msgs/12905.html