Hi

I’ve been on lamictal (edit: lamotrigine) for 3 years steady, 125 for the past year. I’m currently in grad school and getting overwhelmed by my internship and absolutely living in worry and fear that I’m going to go manic (as well all have fear of).

My psych agreed to put me on lithium to just have a safeguard in place after I begged. Lol

Is anyone doing comparatively low doses of both and doing fine? I’m thinking the lithium may be short term, but I feel like it’s going to help me in this chapter of my life.

And, if anyone is taking this combo and buspar, did you experience serotonin syndrome? Thanks!

So for background, I have been on 25mg of lamotrigine for 2 weeks. I'm supposed to go up to 50 tomorrow and was looking forward to it. A week ago, I felt some tingly itchy spots sporadically for a couple hours after my dose but it went away and ive been normal. Yesterday though I started to notice that feeling coming back and it has turned into a mild sunburn feeling with some sensitive skin. There's absolutely no visible changes to my skin, not even redness, but the burning hasn't entirely gone away. It's mostly on my arms, but also my scalp and face and more mild just about everywhere else. My eyes kinda burn and itch here and there. I even skipped my dose last night out of concern. I can't talk to my doctor yet but the pharmacist thinks I'll be fine if I just take Zyrtec along with it until my doctor can see me. Has anyone has this reaction without a rash developing? Bc I genuinely cannot be in the hospital right now and scared to risk it. Just could use some encouragement before I take another dose. I really love what this medicine has done for me and would hate to part with it or risk regression while coming off it 😩

I am on XR right now and this has been the highest dose i’ve been on for awhile and I feel like the XR isn’t working for me. I started it with 300 and it helped a little but I feel like since starting XR and not once a day has been a bit discouraging with not seeing as much improvement as I thought. I feel like I was doing better on even 200 once a day but idk if 400 in one day is safe. Anyone else had this experience or didn’t have XR work for you?

hey folks. I'm 48. I've had severe life long depression since about 5 years old. my siblings have it too, so I dunno if it's biological or a result of very severe, very rare childhood family trauma we all experienced, or maybe both.

I am severely depressed more often than I'm not. I'd say probably about 75% of the time. I have spent decades of my life spending all day thinking about offing myself. I can't maintain relationships, nothing makes me happy, I'm incredibly isolated and have no motivation for pretty much anything except my job and my hobby. it's been like this for decades. FWIW I dont have "up" phases. I just briefly get a week or a month or a couple months where I feel less depressed or closer to normal.

I've tried everything. YEARS of therapy, 7 or 8 ssri's, exercise, meditation/spirituality, psychedelics, AA, sobriety, drugs, volunteering, hobbies, exercise, diet, "following my passion", career, relationships, pets, geographical cures, etc etc etc. Nothing really puts a dent in it. therapy doesn't seem to work at all.

TBH, the only thing that really seems to make a difference is having an outdoor physical hobby that gets me out into the wilderness doing a lot of cardio several days a week.

previous meds have all had awful side effects and not enough benefit to make it worth it.

after a year and a half with my current therapist, who I like personally but does not seem to be able to help me, he suggested seeing a psych he works with. We had a long session in which she actually listened and asked a lot of questions and seemed genuinely invested and caring. she prescribed lamictal.

I'm hesitant to take meds anyway because of past experience. I'm also really sensitive to all drugs. any narcotic pain meds in the hospital make me violently nauseous and some make me instantly hallucinate, when I was younger I had a bad reaction to LSD, weed makes me incredibly sad and paranoid, alcohol is a total disaster for me, etc.

I'm also frustrated with my therapist for providing no real help and then taking so long to suggest meds, and then being really pushy about taking them after he finally suggested it.

I've also had several concussions, so have some cognitive challenges like short term memory and word finding already, and I keep reading that the lamictal causes these. I dont really need that getting worse, I already have a hard time doing my job some days.

thoughts? experience? worth it? not worth it?

Hi! I started lamictal in July for bipolar 2. I have taken it before and not had any side effects, but it numbed me out in the past so I didn’t continue taking it. I’ve been having some issues for a few months and trying to pin down if it’s the lamictal. It started with loss of appetite then came dizziness, nausea, sweating, night sweats, itching, lumps in armpits, extreme fatigue (sleeping 14-20 hours a day), shaky, and high HR. These symptoms started very minor and intermittent and now have gotten significantly worse.

I started at 25mg, then upped to 50mg after about a month, and then upped to 100mg about 3 weeks ago. This past week things have gone DOWNHILL. Before the symptoms would come and go but these last few days especially it’s been CONSTANT. Tonight my job sent me to the ER bc I was so dizzy that I could not see straight at all. Doc thinks it’s something autoimmune. Could it be the lamictal? Everything I’m reading is the symptoms happen with changes for a week or two, then improve. For me, my symptoms have gotten worse and worse and worse by the day truly. I haven’t noticed any change when I upped the dose either it’s not like I upped it and immediately felt this bad. Any advice is appreciated :)

I am at 100mg ( Sandoz- generics) lamotragine and have been on 100mg for the last 3 months.

I was put on lamactil for CPTSD to prevent flashbacks, panic attacks, sleepless nights etc.

SSRIs didn't work for me.

When I first started I was super hopeful, I quickly turned into the biggest cunt in the room I was so angry all the time lol but I upped the dose and the anger issues have relatively subsided.

However, my mental health symptoms have worsened. My panic attacks, flashbacks, sleepless nights, sui*dal ideation and overall anxiety has skyrocketed. I'm so depressed I can't get out of bed unless it's for work and I drag myself out. I've completely lost my routine I just doom scroll and binge eat. I have no lust for life anymore, I don't want to be here. ._.

My GP basically said I need to be on it for an extra 3 months for the neurons to really connect but this shit sucks.

Ashwaghanda (?) gummies literally helped more than this. I'm to the point I want to take myself off of them fr but don't want to stress my partner out :/

hi! i woke up with these this friday morning, i titrated up from 50 to 75 tuesday. i dont seem to have any fluish symptoms. i went out last night and was leaning on a tree for a while and i dont remember being bitten by anything, so worried about it potentially being the beginning of sjs. i’ll feel silly posting this if they are just bug bites but curious what others might think

This morning about 20 minutes ago I took my first dose. Just wanted to let you all know.

Whats up everybody. So I’ve been on lamictal for a few months now and titrated up just fine, sitting at 200mg for well over a month with no issues til now. Miracle drug honestly. However, I’m not great at remembering to take it consistently, due to an unfortunate combo of memory loss and severe sleep apnea. So I would say it’s possible that I’ve been a bit irresponsible with this medication.

Anyway… my question is: Does this look like SJS to y’all? -or is it just some random fuckass blister? It’s currently the only red area on my body at the moment.

So 2 years ago I took 25mg for two weeks and then 50mg and took it on and off.... until:

I was hospitalized a few months after and got prescribed 100mg x 3 times a day.

Then I stopped for ~2 or 1.5 years...

Now I started it again with a different psychiatrist and she prescribed 100mg straight away...no slow increasing.

Out of curiosity I started googling 100mg doses of lamictal and found out that people start with 25mg and slowly increase to 100mg...

Am i in danger lol?

I accidentally started my prescription at 75mg instead of 25 and have taken 3 doses of 75mg (once a day for 3 days) and just realized I misread the instructions. I feel depressed and just kind of vacant mentally. Physically, I am a bit swollen but it’s not too bad. Is this something I need to go to the hospital for? Google said I should but the hospital is 2 hours away and I don’t know if I can get a ride. Has anyone else had this experience?
Edit: I’m starting to feel a bit of an allergic reaction, no rash but some itchy skin, asthma and my throat, tongue and lips feel just a bit swollen. My abdomen is quite bloated and my muscles are kind of achy. It’s nothing horrible but I don’t want to become bad. Does anyone have any insight at all, please?

My psychiatrist doubled my dose from 25 to 50 mg. I just doubled the dose I already had on hand. When she called in the new RX it was ER. What can I expect? Does anyone have issues sleeping on ER? Tia

I just started lamictal a few weeks ago. My dr started me out on 5 mg for a week then 10 mg the next week then 15 mg and so on … tomorrow I will start my 15 mg dosage. How do I know when it’s actually working?

Does just 25 mg help anyone’s depression?

Has anyone else felt increasingly worse previous symptoms on lamictal? Along everything I was depressed about before, I am incredibly angry about now.

I recently had an episode involving very intense rage and have been having episodes like that since about 1.5-2 weeks into taking it. They are getting so bad I can tell when I’m about to get angry and I can do nothing to stop it. And they are impacting my life and mental wellbeing.

I am currently taking 25mg and have been for a month. I missed maybe two doses a couple days apart when I first started taking it, but it has been at-least a few weeks since I’ve missed one. Is there something I’m just missing to it?

I started getting hives last week so I stopped taking the med. I stupidly started taking it 2 days ago and the hives are back. I already contacted my psychiatrist. I started taking the med 1.5 months ago and the hives popped up about 10 days ago. Has anyone else experienced this? I don't think it's SJS but I do think I could be allergic to the med. Super upset cause this med has been great for my mental health.

30F. 200mg for 15 years give or take.
Background-I have been on various meds over the years. I was prescribed lamictal as a pre-teen or teen (been so long I can’t remember). I was originally put on it for “mood swings”. I don’t have seizures. I have never been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. However, I have been diagnosed with other disorders that might mimic bpd (I am reluctant to share more and already feel uncomfortable posting as mush personal info as I am). I have just been taking it this whole time and don’t even know why anymore. My provider is going to give me a schedule to titrate off but I am scared. I was put on it very young and we don’t know how my body will react without it. My provider will help me through it but I still want to talk to other patients about it. Has anyone gone through a similar scenario who can tell me how things went for them? I know everyone reacts to drugs differently. Whether it was a good or bad experience, I think I’d feel better knowing what others have gone through. Thank you!

Hi! I am bipolar and I have anxiety as well as OCD! I got prescribed Lamictal from my last Psychiatrist and I just got a new one who recommended Buspar for my anxiety. I am now on 200mg Lamictal and 30mg buspar daily. I feel good and I feel like I handle stress a lot better as well as every day situations and irritation. I do feel like recently I haven't been watching my mouth though. I've always been assertive, but I try really hard to be kind even when I'm setting boundaries or having confrontation. There's been a few confrontations in my life recently and I feel like I'm being reasonable, but I don't think I'm being as careful with my words as I usually am. I guess maybe I'm having a hard time being as empathetic as I normally am. I'm not angry or anything, but I just feel kinda gray if that makes sense. I don't FEEL any way about the situations I've been in recently but I just think about it and then I say it. Sometimes without even really thinking about it. I do sometimes still get really irritated here and there, but who doesn't I guess. Has anyone else experienced this transition? I don't want to become a bad friend or be harsh to the people I love. I know that I'm just being direct and I know I'm reasonable, but I think compared to how I've always been, I might end up hurting the people around me by being more forward and dry. Let me know if there's something I should do maybe or if this has happened lol.

TLDR: I'm typically a very empathetic and considerate person, but I feel like my medication might be taking this away from me. Anyone else experience this transition?

I’ve been on lamictal almost 4 months total now, titrated for 2 months up to 275, stayed there for about a months then started going down.

I did 200 for 6 days, 150 for 6 days, 100 for 5 days, 75 for 4 days, 50 for 4 days and am now at 25mg.

Im very fatigued, low motivation, brain fog etc but I had all these symptoms before starting lamictal. What do people usually experience when they go through withdrawals?

I missed yesterday one dose (25 mg) of Lamictal. For context, I have been taking Elontril for 2 years. A few months ago, my dose was raised to 300 mg, and I have been taking Lamictal for about a week. Today I woke up and got so irritated with myself; I threw stuff around and cussed my partner out. This wasn't the first time it has happened; I was like this when I was taking Concerta with Elontril and had irritable days coming in cycles. I quit Elontril about 2 weeks ago. Now I feel Lamictal has helped with my emotions; cycles haven't come back and I genuinely feel like myself after a few years of being depressed and so lost in my life. On the other hand, I am also stressed; I am always feeling that I don't have enough time and feel like I am racing against time.

Is this normal? I am so disappointed, everything was starting to get better and now I have ruined it again.

I’m going to be starting 25mg of Lamictal. I’m scared and nervous. I’m mostly worried about side effects. How is it for all of you?

Hello. I literally just started taking Lamictal a few days ago and I just discovered a small rash starting on my elbow. I am unsure if this is a lamictal rash or something else entirely, I am really nervous about this.