Posted by dragonblack on August 4, 2010, at 17:50:02
In reply to Re: BPII: stop antidepressant to test mood stabilizer?, posted by polarbear206 on August 4, 2010, at 16:38:31
I was originally diagnosed as unipolar forever ago, Zoloft was awful, switched to Wellbutrin, which was much better.
Went off all meds for several years (long story), then finally got back on in April '09. I started back on Wellbutrin and starter dose of Lamictal. Lamictal takes forever to get to a therapeutic dose, and I couldn't wait, I really did need an AD then. I saw improvements with each dose increase on Lamictal up to 200 mg, for the most part, but still didn't have any energy or motivation and wanted to add maybe a second AD as an adjunct, as I had to get back to work. Then my sister had a massive stroke and I had to move to help take care of her...convinced my Doc to let me go up to 450 mg on Wellbutrin (what I was on in law school, years ago), as I had fared well on it before and the problems I had stemmed from not addressing BP or anxiety back then, which in theory I am now doing. So, I had a period where this combo was working fairly well for me, at least in comparison to where I was, but I was still cycling. Tried to go up on Lamictal, to 300, and that was a huge mistake. I managed to stop cycling!...by settling into depression. Recently went back down to 200, now having the same thing, cycling, not up long enough to accomplish anything, lots of problems. The idea of taking away my AD seems kinda nuts to me, but it also seems strange to quit lamictal given that I've only taken it with an AD in place (though the headaches may justify quitting anyway). I really just don't know what to do. I probably need to wean off Wellbutrin slowly even if I were to take that route, and I need help NOW, so I think that I am going to have to try a different mood stabilizer now even if I try to wean off Wellbutrin. I've been reading that contrary to the 4-week taper they usually recommend, you really should give it 16 weeks to taper off an AD.
I'm so damn frustrated with my meds that I've often considered just quitting everything, though I imagine that can't be a good idea. But I'm constantly trying to treat side effects that I'm creating, treat anxiety, then treat somnolence, creating anxiety...and it aint working anyway. I don't know what to do, to sum up. Going off all meds and becoming completely nonfunctional just doesn't seem that far off. At least then I could evaluate my own chemistry and get rid of med induced sides.
poster:dragonblack
thread:957141
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100731/msgs/957224.html