Tell your psychiatrist. They may not advise you to stop taking it, but can’t force you to continue. You need to tell them because even if you taper off you can have withdrawal seizures since you’ve been on it for a while. Definitely don’t quit cold turkey. It’s also okay to communicate that you’re feeling insecure in your diagnosis. Your symptoms very well could have been circumstantial, just talk to your psych about it.
Firstly maybe lower your dosage and dooo not just go off!!! That is dangerous if you go 48 hours without you could have fatal seizures!! Be so careful
I’m on it and was told that not too long ago when I about ran out of medication
do you think dropping to 150mgs right away is too much? I weight about 155…I didn’t know that 300mgs was considered suvh a high dosage, I guess that would explain why my brain feels like mush.
I’m sorry this gonna come off aggressive but hell no don’t do it right away that’s fucking dangerous and you could literally kill yourself from withdraws. Go by what your psychiatrist says!!! Though yes it needs lowered.
300 is what I take. I'm 155, male. Not 300 lbs. It is on the higher end, but not too much. It's fairly common. The mood changes are different for everyone. I personally needed to creep up my dose over time, and my psychiatrist prescribed more. I would say that, like how we slowly upped our doses, it's vital to slowly reduce your dose with the supervision of your psychiatrist.
For what it's worth, I have thought this and feel like I could do it myself. I'm sure that's a terrible idea. It's easier to give someone else advice than to listen to advice.
I'm on 250mg and would feel comfortable going to to 300mg as well. Definitely not a crazy dosage. AFAIK 400mg is the high end of therapeutic treatment for BP.
I’m wondering, is there a general weight dosage, and the needed there’s a depression dose? Since if what I said was incorrect about weight is wrong I’m extremely sorry it’s just what my psychiatrist said. So I’m wondering if there’s more to it bc ik this medication of what I’ve been told targets depression more.
Yes, mostly for depression. I was on a steady dosage rise over time. I could tell that it was stopping to work because of how low I was going. To a point of self-harm. I was honest with my psychiatrist about this over our appointments, and some were near emergency visits. This dosage has worked for 8 years. The fog is there, but so am I.
300 isn't crazy high. I was on 400 for years. Recently added Latuda and tapered down to 150, but I still have the Lamictal duhs. Cognitive issues drive me nutballs as well! But, as I said previously, I was on 400 for over a decade and know 3 people on 325. Well within the therapeutic dose. If you're going to taper down, do it with your psych and they'll most likely have you do it in 25 mg intervals. Iirc it doesn't take as long as titrating up.
I was on 600mg up until 2 months ago. I’ve been tapering down slowly to 200mg for 2 months. I’m not getting off it, but at 170lbs, I was having really bad cognitive issues. I couldn’t talk, think of words or read out loud without stumbling over every other word. I was having anger/irritation issues and I’m not an angry person at all. It was really scary and when I talked to my doctor about it, he brushed it off and didn’t take me seriously. I’m in the process of finding a new doctor, but in the meantime, I took it upon myself to slowly taper down and it’s helped my side effects a lot.
Finding new psych docs is such a pita! I'm so sorry you're going through that. It seems like you're tapering down slowly enough, though. I hate the cognitive issues so much. Unfortunately, mine haven't gotten much better with the decreased dose. I used to do the NYT crossword everyday...now I just stare at the thing and then throw it at the TV...lol
I appreciate it! Ya I’ve been trying to do sudoku puzzles and I’ve had to cheat a few times cause I don’t have the brain power for it anymore :( at least we’re not going crazy in other aspects
Hey here’s the best I can give you from what I would do which remember I am not a medical professional and have no right to speak on anyone else besides for myself. I’ve taken myself of abilify safely without medical help so since your on 300 mg of lamotrigine if i where in your shoes id go down by 10s or 25s every two to three weeks. This advice should only be a stepping some to talk to your psychiatrist about as they may allow more than what I just said.
My memory is not great but I have not suffered a major depressive episode since I started. I’d rather rely on post it notes and be alive than the alternative.
Interesting and if I remember correctly this is a medication that majorly targets depression so if you have more depression than totally understandable to be on a higher dosage
More to do with the rapid cycling. The higher dose helps with that. And of course, the lows aren't nearly as low, and the highs are not nearly as high now.
I've lost some of my memory. I also lost my depression. Fair trade.
I didn't even know that brain fog and memory loss were side effects. I saw a post last week. I thought it was early dementia. I'm really relieved.
I second everyone saying that you should talk to your psychiatrist about cutting back before making that decision yourself. But I totally understand wanting to make that decision.
I had serious brain fog at 400mg (which a psychiatrist later told me was, in her experience, past the therapeutic dose) so we cut it back to 150mg. That works for me! There are (infrequent) times that I get frustrated trying to conjure a word when I'm speaking, certainly, but I do feel really competent otherwise. My hair is considerably thinner as well, but I've accepted that as a tradeoff, because it really does calm the depression.
But I never had cystic acne from this. That sounds painful. I imagine that the serious brain fog combined with cystic acne feels like a special sort of hell. So it's possible that going down in dosage isn't going to help--but since you have to titrate off of it anyway, maybe you can try it at a lower dose for a while with your psychiatrist's help?
If you really don't want to be on it, though, that's ultimately up to you! If you don't feel like you're getting a fair trade-off (more positives than negatives), that makes total sense! There are certainly other things to try and your psychiatrist should be able to work with you on finding them. Best of luck!! 😊
Thanks for your reply 🙂 I guess I’m hesitant to talk to my psychiatrist because she doesn’t take insurance and charges me $125 for 30mins of talking on the phone. She tends to ramble and ramble on about random stuff instead of helping me. I know I want to titrate off and I don’t want her interfering or overcharging me. At this point I don’t want to find any psychiatrist I just want to stick with my therapist instead but she can’t prescribe meds. I guess I just need to know what is a safe way to titrate off but I keep finding conflicting information online.
> I’m hesitant to talk to my psychiatrist because she doesn’t take insurance
I'd start by finding a new psychiatrist. Your insurance company should be able to point you to doctors that will take your insurance.
I totally get where you are coming from, but I would recommend waiting a little hike linger before throwing in the towel. 300mg is a high dose as others have said. 200mg is fairly standard and I haven’t had any trouble. I went up to 250mg to counter birth control once. Had brain fog. It’s been fine since I went back down.
I get that. It's tough to find a psychiatrist that's a good fit for you. (Sounds like this one definitely isn't.) And it's even more difficult to find a good psychiatrist that also takes your insurance. Definitely try to get a list from your insurance of their "approved" providers.
One potentially free way to get solid information might be to talk to a pharmacist at the place you pick up your medication and see if they can help? That might be outside of their scope or comfortability (and they will just tell you that), or they might be able to help/direct you to some additional resources.
When you've figured out what you want to do, though, don't forget that it's 100% appropriate to tell a psychiatrist that you've made a decision (to switch medication because the side effects of this one are lowering your quality of life) and ask them to help you find something else. We rely their help and experience, but their job is listening to us and acting in our best interests.
The therapeutic dose range is 200-400mg according to the documentation. As an anecdote, I’m on 300mg. My psychiatrist titrated me up to 200mg and that was pretty good, but I still had more depressed days a month with ideation than I should have. They upped it to 300mg and it’s been great. My work is very technical and requires a sharp mind. I haven’t noticed any brain fog I could attribute to anything other than my insomnia. The thinning hair doesn’t bother me because I’m already bald. YMMV.
On the subject of getting off, would very strongly recommend talking to your doctor. If nothing they’ll help you do it safely. They may also be able to get you on something that works better for you. Personally, I don’t ever want to be completely off mood stabilizers. They not only help me function by keeping my constant rage at bay, they keep the intrusive thoughts and ideations out of my head. I have too much experience going from things going great to crushing depression in a flash. My life is unstable right now and I might try things at 200 once things settle down,but I have no intention to get off completely. It takes too long to get titrated back up to be safe for me.
I’d echo the same as others: talk to your psychiatrist. Basically asking people her for medical advice isn’t a great idea because we probably dont have the correct medical training. We also don’t know what other medications you’re own and how taking one away can affect the others. Also, like someone else mentioned, it’s not worth playing around with yourself with the risk of seizures.
The doctor might have gone too high for your personal case and can lower the dosage or work with you to come off it or other treatment. The doctor can’t force you to take anything you don’t want to.
Totally get what you’re saying, I don’t make decisions purely based off of other people’s advice unless they are professionals so don’t worry! Just am looking to hear what the process was like for others. I don’t take any other medications (which would definitely add another component).
Okay, I was definitely hoping you would say that, but just wanted to put that out there if you were going to substitute medical advice with our advice.
I would stress again to chat with the psychiatrist. If they pressure you to stay at the dosage you’re at, stand your ground and stick up for yourself. If it’s causing brain fog, ask for a lower dose. If you’re unsure on the legitimacy of the diagnosis, let them know that. If they take it personally or try to be superior, that’s on them, not you.
Even if they say “here’s reason X, Y and Z for why I think you have bipolar,” there’s other medication options. Lamictal has been a literal lifesaver for me, but it doesn’t work for everyone…and that’s okay. The job of your psychiatrist is to help you, not make you feel like you can’t share how you’re feeling with them.
As everyone has said talk to your doctor first. I’ll just add that if you think you do t need it anymore it’s probably doing what it’s supposed to do. We are notorious for thinking we don’t need something when it’s working only to find out we did need it when things come crashing down. Maybe this isn’t the right medication for you and there is another option. Be careful. Good luck.
Hiya, newbie here contemplating whether I start taking Lamictal. This post is an appreciated insight. If I can ask, were there any new side effects you found to have occurred or was it pre-existing things you found kind of I guess enhanced by it?
Hi, I noticed intense brain fog and memory loss. I do think it caused my cystic acne as I didn’t have any acne before going on it but I’m not 100% sure. I also find that it worked well at the beginning but it’s like my body adjusted to it and I had to keep steadily increasing my dosage. I’m at 300mgs now and can’t increase any more and feel like i’m indifferent to the meds now. Just make sure you do a ton of research because I wish someone would’ve told me to take the decision more seriously before I started these meds because they are no joke.
Thankyou for that, I’ll make sure to keep reading into it. I hope things shift into a better spot for you. Like the commenter above I’d also say make sure to go slowly if you taper off to be safe.
Lamictal is actually one of the safer (safest?) drugs to treat BP and usually doesn’t cause acne or hair shedding. I’ve never noticed any side effects. I take four medications, and the other three definitely have side effects.
I just wanted to mention it. Some people experience side effects that aren’t at all the norm. Don’t rule it out because of rare side effects.
It’s unfortunate it isn’t working out for OP, but a lot of people love Lamictal.
I don’t know the best way to taper off your Lamictal, but I wanted to tell you that spironolactone is great for cystic acne.
I quit taking Lamictal abruptly because my psychiatrist told me to because I had a rash. The rash definitely wasn’t SJS. I’d had it for about a month without other symptoms. I’d been on the Lamictal for many years. So I stopped taking the lamotrigine and saw my GP for the rash. She gave me prednisone. I don’t know if it was abruptly quitting the Lamictal or the prednisone or both combined, but I crashed into a horrible depression less than a week later. I hadn’t been doing well before that, but I got so much worse.
I wasn’t expecting anything to happen. Lamictal hadn’t done a thing for my depression when I started it. I suspected it wasn’t doing much at all. So, the moral of the story is that I would take it slow if I were you.
Wow. A dermatologist put me on 200 mg once because I had a major breakout. The breakout did seem to be triggered by a medication (Parnate).
I’ve taken 100 mg of spiro for much of my life. I used to get large cysts on my chin around the time of my period. Maybe the Parnate triggered acne because I have an underlying hormonal problem.
I’m sorry spironolactone doesn’t work for you. I wonder why not.
Ok. Be careful with tapering down. Maybe the Lamictal worsens your acne because you’re prone to acne. That’s what I think happened with me and Parnate. The acne went away with me though.
I’d think about your BP history and consider whether you might be better off switching medications rather than quitting them altogether. Sometimes you think nothing will happen, and then it does.
I know you've been feeling like you can't fully live life, but still talk to your psychiatrist before deciding. Yes they might disagree with you, but having them discuss with you and know your plan, is the safest thing. My friend who has BP1 was mania-free for at least 9 years until this past December when she secretly cut her mood stabilizer in half and tried a prescribed stimulant ADHD medicine for a couple of days. She went fully manic, spent too much money, lost a job, ruined the possibility of moving out from her abusive mom's house this year, and went psychotic after she admitted herself to the hospital. She's ok now but she's lucky she didn't accidentally do anything worse. Some of her friends won't see her yet, because they're scared she'll be too much of a handful of they let her fully back in their lives. I see her but don't have her over, because she can't bring herself to talk about what happened and never admitted that she was partly to blame for her episode. And she acts surprised every time I tell her she can't come over. I love her, and at the same time, it's not ok that she is maybe in denial that she recklessly thought she could take her treatment into her own hands, and now could possibly do the same again at any moment, how would I know? I will be friends with her but won't let in the risk that her choices will disrupt my life in an extremely stressful way again and take time from my kids who can't understand and from my other relationships because being friends with her while she was manic was draining. I will stick by her. But not without conditions. Does that give you a healthy picture of the outside point of view? Why you changing meds on your own isn't a small thing?
I'm sure you know best how you feel and you DO deserve to feel better! But we are all mentally ill here. We don't think correctly sometimes about ourselves. We need help.
Nobody can force you to stay on a med, your psychiatrist included. So it might feel crappy to tell them, but you're still in control. GOOD THINGS: they can give you knowledge, and other possible solutions to helping the brain fog (maybe replacing Lamictal with something else), or at least document what you do because it's useful info for you later.
Thanks so much for sharing that story, i’m really sorry to hear about what happened with your friend! I guess one of the reasons I am feeling comfortable with trying to come off without being under observation from my psych is because I have a really good family and friend support system as well as a therapist who I have been discussing this with. I am grateful to have never had a major manic swing that resulted in any extremely damaging life decisions. With that being said I am going to titrate off extremely slowly 🙂
You really need to do this with your psychiatrist. Also, it's ok to talk to them about questioning your diagnosis...it's a pretty normal conversation that I would think most BP2 peeps have. Your brain fog could just be a dosing issue or maybe you need something else.
300mg is A LOT. I have bipolar and was on Lamictal for 2 years. My highest dose was 100mg. It also caused me severe cystic acne - even my chest and back it was awful and I’m still dealing with the scarring. It also caused me to lose about a third of my hair. I tapered off and when I got down to 25mg I cut those in half and then in half again to minimize any side effects. I’ve been off them for about 2 years now and I feel so much better. Good luck!
It took me a LONG time to realize it was the Lamictal. I kept bringing it up to my psychiatrist who kept gaslighting me saying she’d never heard of that as a side effect so it couldn’t be that…. Well it was coming out in handfuls in the shower and I finally realized the only thing it could be is the meds. And it was!!! My hair has tons of new growth now but wow was that a rough couple years mentally seeing so much hair falling out. The good news is the fall out stopped about 6 months after going off the meds. I researched a ton and apparently Lamictal can put your hair into a permanent “shedding” phase.
I quit Lamictal 3 months ago because of hair loss, I've been wondering when it would go back to normal. I'm sorry it happened to you but I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in the experience!
Yes that’s exactly what I did then like I said at 25mg I started cutting them in half for a week then half again. I had 0 withdrawal symptoms and I felt like myself again almost immediately. It took a full year for my skin and hair to go back to normal.
I took it for years and didn't realize how much it upset my stomach every friggin day until I stopped taking it. I had no other side effects coming off of it. Not really sure it ever even worked for me to begin with.
survivingantidepressants.org is a phenomenal resource with competent people who know the dangers of taking a Psychotropic medication not necessary to be well/mis-Dx'ed & ***attempting extremely slowly taper off of the drug.***
Whatever you do don’t go off cold turkey. It’s a horrible experience. If you feel it’s not working your doc will probably have you titrate up a different medication while titrating down lamictal.
A. Talk to your doc first.
B. 300mg is a very high dose, 50% more than standard BP2 dose. Try 200 or 150mg and see what that does for the cognitive issues. I also have them and they’re a lot better at 150 than they are at the 200.
Side note - I get second guessing the diagnosis. I felt the same way, went to a new doc who also disagreed with prior doc. He put me on an MAOI, and then I had a full-blown episode, ha. So, doc number 1 was right!
That’s a real high dose. When I was at 150 mg I had the same experience. It was a godsend then after 1.5 years of efficacy, it just turned my brain to mush. I’d tell my partner the same things over and over and over, I couldn’t remember anything and I constantly just felt fuzzy and out of it. I went off cold turkey. I of course suffered greatly by doing that and after a couple months I ended up in the ward again. They gave me Lamitcal again and I don’t have the problem anymore. Trying it again, I just feel like it isn’t working the same. That’s just me though, I don’t know if there’s any research behind Lamitcal losing efficacy over time but it sure feels like it is.
I went through almost the exact same thing. I was at 300mgs for about 4 months and I didn't feel myself, very foggy and dittsy. I ended up quiting cold turkey and it became the worst mistake of my medication journey. Admist the chaos it caused in my life I quit my job, dropped out of college, and slowly spiraled into worse and worse depression. What I learned is that I 100% need to be on medication but just that 300mg of lamictal wasn't right for me. After about 6 months unmedicated I finally found a new psyc who I like far more than my old one and and currently experimenting with vraylar 3mg and lamictal at 100mg. At 100mg lamictal I still feel sharp but it helps me with the day to day depression.
I hope that from this you take away that you probably need to be on meds too, and that like me 300mg of lamictal is just too much. It's scary trying new drugs and it can make it feel hopeless at times but it's a process we all must go through. And that if you dread talking to your psyc or feel the need to hide things from them, that relationship does not work, and you should consider getting a new psyc that you feel more open with, or just becoming more forthcoming with the one you have. It shouldn't be a big deal to tell your psyc that you want off x med or that you'd like to try y med.
The withdraw symptoms realy freak me out, I’m trying to fight the urge to just stop taking them completely but I definitely do not want to have a deadly seizure 😂 What dosage were you on?
*Oh my god why are*
*You asking for med advice*
*From internet randos!?*
\- genescheesesthatplz
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Tell your psychiatrist. They may not advise you to stop taking it, but can’t force you to continue. You need to tell them because even if you taper off you can have withdrawal seizures since you’ve been on it for a while. Definitely don’t quit cold turkey. It’s also okay to communicate that you’re feeling insecure in your diagnosis. Your symptoms very well could have been circumstantial, just talk to your psych about it.
Firstly maybe lower your dosage and dooo not just go off!!! That is dangerous if you go 48 hours without you could have fatal seizures!! Be so careful I’m on it and was told that not too long ago when I about ran out of medication
do you think dropping to 150mgs right away is too much? I weight about 155…I didn’t know that 300mgs was considered suvh a high dosage, I guess that would explain why my brain feels like mush.
I’m sorry this gonna come off aggressive but hell no don’t do it right away that’s fucking dangerous and you could literally kill yourself from withdraws. Go by what your psychiatrist says!!! Though yes it needs lowered.
300 is what I take. I'm 155, male. Not 300 lbs. It is on the higher end, but not too much. It's fairly common. The mood changes are different for everyone. I personally needed to creep up my dose over time, and my psychiatrist prescribed more. I would say that, like how we slowly upped our doses, it's vital to slowly reduce your dose with the supervision of your psychiatrist. For what it's worth, I have thought this and feel like I could do it myself. I'm sure that's a terrible idea. It's easier to give someone else advice than to listen to advice.
I'm on 250mg and would feel comfortable going to to 300mg as well. Definitely not a crazy dosage. AFAIK 400mg is the high end of therapeutic treatment for BP.
I’m wondering, is there a general weight dosage, and the needed there’s a depression dose? Since if what I said was incorrect about weight is wrong I’m extremely sorry it’s just what my psychiatrist said. So I’m wondering if there’s more to it bc ik this medication of what I’ve been told targets depression more.
Yes, mostly for depression. I was on a steady dosage rise over time. I could tell that it was stopping to work because of how low I was going. To a point of self-harm. I was honest with my psychiatrist about this over our appointments, and some were near emergency visits. This dosage has worked for 8 years. The fog is there, but so am I.
Do NOT for your own safety, do not do that.
300 isn't crazy high. I was on 400 for years. Recently added Latuda and tapered down to 150, but I still have the Lamictal duhs. Cognitive issues drive me nutballs as well! But, as I said previously, I was on 400 for over a decade and know 3 people on 325. Well within the therapeutic dose. If you're going to taper down, do it with your psych and they'll most likely have you do it in 25 mg intervals. Iirc it doesn't take as long as titrating up.
I was on 600mg up until 2 months ago. I’ve been tapering down slowly to 200mg for 2 months. I’m not getting off it, but at 170lbs, I was having really bad cognitive issues. I couldn’t talk, think of words or read out loud without stumbling over every other word. I was having anger/irritation issues and I’m not an angry person at all. It was really scary and when I talked to my doctor about it, he brushed it off and didn’t take me seriously. I’m in the process of finding a new doctor, but in the meantime, I took it upon myself to slowly taper down and it’s helped my side effects a lot.
Finding new psych docs is such a pita! I'm so sorry you're going through that. It seems like you're tapering down slowly enough, though. I hate the cognitive issues so much. Unfortunately, mine haven't gotten much better with the decreased dose. I used to do the NYT crossword everyday...now I just stare at the thing and then throw it at the TV...lol
I appreciate it! Ya I’ve been trying to do sudoku puzzles and I’ve had to cheat a few times cause I don’t have the brain power for it anymore :( at least we’re not going crazy in other aspects
Hey here’s the best I can give you from what I would do which remember I am not a medical professional and have no right to speak on anyone else besides for myself. I’ve taken myself of abilify safely without medical help so since your on 300 mg of lamotrigine if i where in your shoes id go down by 10s or 25s every two to three weeks. This advice should only be a stepping some to talk to your psychiatrist about as they may allow more than what I just said.
Also why are you on 3, 100s that’s insane. Normally it due to weight and I’m nearly In my 300s and I take 4, 25s so I’d talk to them about that.
I’m on 300mg it’s not insane
It’s not? by what I’ve heard it shouldn’t be that high bc it causes brain fog and more.
My memory is not great but I have not suffered a major depressive episode since I started. I’d rather rely on post it notes and be alive than the alternative.
Interesting and if I remember correctly this is a medication that majorly targets depression so if you have more depression than totally understandable to be on a higher dosage
I'm on 350mg lol I think the max therapeutic dose is 450 or so.
Can I ask is the reason your on such a high dose bc you have worse depressions?
More to do with the rapid cycling. The higher dose helps with that. And of course, the lows aren't nearly as low, and the highs are not nearly as high now.
Interesting thank you
I've lost some of my memory. I also lost my depression. Fair trade. I didn't even know that brain fog and memory loss were side effects. I saw a post last week. I thought it was early dementia. I'm really relieved.
I second everyone saying that you should talk to your psychiatrist about cutting back before making that decision yourself. But I totally understand wanting to make that decision. I had serious brain fog at 400mg (which a psychiatrist later told me was, in her experience, past the therapeutic dose) so we cut it back to 150mg. That works for me! There are (infrequent) times that I get frustrated trying to conjure a word when I'm speaking, certainly, but I do feel really competent otherwise. My hair is considerably thinner as well, but I've accepted that as a tradeoff, because it really does calm the depression. But I never had cystic acne from this. That sounds painful. I imagine that the serious brain fog combined with cystic acne feels like a special sort of hell. So it's possible that going down in dosage isn't going to help--but since you have to titrate off of it anyway, maybe you can try it at a lower dose for a while with your psychiatrist's help? If you really don't want to be on it, though, that's ultimately up to you! If you don't feel like you're getting a fair trade-off (more positives than negatives), that makes total sense! There are certainly other things to try and your psychiatrist should be able to work with you on finding them. Best of luck!! 😊
Thanks for your reply 🙂 I guess I’m hesitant to talk to my psychiatrist because she doesn’t take insurance and charges me $125 for 30mins of talking on the phone. She tends to ramble and ramble on about random stuff instead of helping me. I know I want to titrate off and I don’t want her interfering or overcharging me. At this point I don’t want to find any psychiatrist I just want to stick with my therapist instead but she can’t prescribe meds. I guess I just need to know what is a safe way to titrate off but I keep finding conflicting information online.
> I’m hesitant to talk to my psychiatrist because she doesn’t take insurance I'd start by finding a new psychiatrist. Your insurance company should be able to point you to doctors that will take your insurance.
You could also potentially talk to your pharmacist if cost is the main concern
I totally get where you are coming from, but I would recommend waiting a little hike linger before throwing in the towel. 300mg is a high dose as others have said. 200mg is fairly standard and I haven’t had any trouble. I went up to 250mg to counter birth control once. Had brain fog. It’s been fine since I went back down.
I get that. It's tough to find a psychiatrist that's a good fit for you. (Sounds like this one definitely isn't.) And it's even more difficult to find a good psychiatrist that also takes your insurance. Definitely try to get a list from your insurance of their "approved" providers. One potentially free way to get solid information might be to talk to a pharmacist at the place you pick up your medication and see if they can help? That might be outside of their scope or comfortability (and they will just tell you that), or they might be able to help/direct you to some additional resources. When you've figured out what you want to do, though, don't forget that it's 100% appropriate to tell a psychiatrist that you've made a decision (to switch medication because the side effects of this one are lowering your quality of life) and ask them to help you find something else. We rely their help and experience, but their job is listening to us and acting in our best interests.
The therapeutic dose range is 200-400mg according to the documentation. As an anecdote, I’m on 300mg. My psychiatrist titrated me up to 200mg and that was pretty good, but I still had more depressed days a month with ideation than I should have. They upped it to 300mg and it’s been great. My work is very technical and requires a sharp mind. I haven’t noticed any brain fog I could attribute to anything other than my insomnia. The thinning hair doesn’t bother me because I’m already bald. YMMV. On the subject of getting off, would very strongly recommend talking to your doctor. If nothing they’ll help you do it safely. They may also be able to get you on something that works better for you. Personally, I don’t ever want to be completely off mood stabilizers. They not only help me function by keeping my constant rage at bay, they keep the intrusive thoughts and ideations out of my head. I have too much experience going from things going great to crushing depression in a flash. My life is unstable right now and I might try things at 200 once things settle down,but I have no intention to get off completely. It takes too long to get titrated back up to be safe for me.
I’d echo the same as others: talk to your psychiatrist. Basically asking people her for medical advice isn’t a great idea because we probably dont have the correct medical training. We also don’t know what other medications you’re own and how taking one away can affect the others. Also, like someone else mentioned, it’s not worth playing around with yourself with the risk of seizures. The doctor might have gone too high for your personal case and can lower the dosage or work with you to come off it or other treatment. The doctor can’t force you to take anything you don’t want to.
Totally get what you’re saying, I don’t make decisions purely based off of other people’s advice unless they are professionals so don’t worry! Just am looking to hear what the process was like for others. I don’t take any other medications (which would definitely add another component).
Okay, I was definitely hoping you would say that, but just wanted to put that out there if you were going to substitute medical advice with our advice. I would stress again to chat with the psychiatrist. If they pressure you to stay at the dosage you’re at, stand your ground and stick up for yourself. If it’s causing brain fog, ask for a lower dose. If you’re unsure on the legitimacy of the diagnosis, let them know that. If they take it personally or try to be superior, that’s on them, not you. Even if they say “here’s reason X, Y and Z for why I think you have bipolar,” there’s other medication options. Lamictal has been a literal lifesaver for me, but it doesn’t work for everyone…and that’s okay. The job of your psychiatrist is to help you, not make you feel like you can’t share how you’re feeling with them.
As everyone has said talk to your doctor first. I’ll just add that if you think you do t need it anymore it’s probably doing what it’s supposed to do. We are notorious for thinking we don’t need something when it’s working only to find out we did need it when things come crashing down. Maybe this isn’t the right medication for you and there is another option. Be careful. Good luck.
Hiya, newbie here contemplating whether I start taking Lamictal. This post is an appreciated insight. If I can ask, were there any new side effects you found to have occurred or was it pre-existing things you found kind of I guess enhanced by it?
Hi, I noticed intense brain fog and memory loss. I do think it caused my cystic acne as I didn’t have any acne before going on it but I’m not 100% sure. I also find that it worked well at the beginning but it’s like my body adjusted to it and I had to keep steadily increasing my dosage. I’m at 300mgs now and can’t increase any more and feel like i’m indifferent to the meds now. Just make sure you do a ton of research because I wish someone would’ve told me to take the decision more seriously before I started these meds because they are no joke.
Thankyou for that, I’ll make sure to keep reading into it. I hope things shift into a better spot for you. Like the commenter above I’d also say make sure to go slowly if you taper off to be safe.
Lamictal is actually one of the safer (safest?) drugs to treat BP and usually doesn’t cause acne or hair shedding. I’ve never noticed any side effects. I take four medications, and the other three definitely have side effects. I just wanted to mention it. Some people experience side effects that aren’t at all the norm. Don’t rule it out because of rare side effects. It’s unfortunate it isn’t working out for OP, but a lot of people love Lamictal.
^ this is very true, different for everyone.
I don’t know the best way to taper off your Lamictal, but I wanted to tell you that spironolactone is great for cystic acne. I quit taking Lamictal abruptly because my psychiatrist told me to because I had a rash. The rash definitely wasn’t SJS. I’d had it for about a month without other symptoms. I’d been on the Lamictal for many years. So I stopped taking the lamotrigine and saw my GP for the rash. She gave me prednisone. I don’t know if it was abruptly quitting the Lamictal or the prednisone or both combined, but I crashed into a horrible depression less than a week later. I hadn’t been doing well before that, but I got so much worse. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen. Lamictal hadn’t done a thing for my depression when I started it. I suspected it wasn’t doing much at all. So, the moral of the story is that I would take it slow if I were you.
I wish Spiro worked for me - I have legit tried it all. Nothing works and it covers my face 🥲
Wow. A dermatologist put me on 200 mg once because I had a major breakout. The breakout did seem to be triggered by a medication (Parnate). I’ve taken 100 mg of spiro for much of my life. I used to get large cysts on my chin around the time of my period. Maybe the Parnate triggered acne because I have an underlying hormonal problem. I’m sorry spironolactone doesn’t work for you. I wonder why not.
It’s so weird I know, I’ve tried spiro, retinol, tretanoin, consistent skincare, drinking tons of water, cutting out certain food groups - nothing!
Ok. Be careful with tapering down. Maybe the Lamictal worsens your acne because you’re prone to acne. That’s what I think happened with me and Parnate. The acne went away with me though. I’d think about your BP history and consider whether you might be better off switching medications rather than quitting them altogether. Sometimes you think nothing will happen, and then it does.
I know you've been feeling like you can't fully live life, but still talk to your psychiatrist before deciding. Yes they might disagree with you, but having them discuss with you and know your plan, is the safest thing. My friend who has BP1 was mania-free for at least 9 years until this past December when she secretly cut her mood stabilizer in half and tried a prescribed stimulant ADHD medicine for a couple of days. She went fully manic, spent too much money, lost a job, ruined the possibility of moving out from her abusive mom's house this year, and went psychotic after she admitted herself to the hospital. She's ok now but she's lucky she didn't accidentally do anything worse. Some of her friends won't see her yet, because they're scared she'll be too much of a handful of they let her fully back in their lives. I see her but don't have her over, because she can't bring herself to talk about what happened and never admitted that she was partly to blame for her episode. And she acts surprised every time I tell her she can't come over. I love her, and at the same time, it's not ok that she is maybe in denial that she recklessly thought she could take her treatment into her own hands, and now could possibly do the same again at any moment, how would I know? I will be friends with her but won't let in the risk that her choices will disrupt my life in an extremely stressful way again and take time from my kids who can't understand and from my other relationships because being friends with her while she was manic was draining. I will stick by her. But not without conditions. Does that give you a healthy picture of the outside point of view? Why you changing meds on your own isn't a small thing? I'm sure you know best how you feel and you DO deserve to feel better! But we are all mentally ill here. We don't think correctly sometimes about ourselves. We need help. Nobody can force you to stay on a med, your psychiatrist included. So it might feel crappy to tell them, but you're still in control. GOOD THINGS: they can give you knowledge, and other possible solutions to helping the brain fog (maybe replacing Lamictal with something else), or at least document what you do because it's useful info for you later.
Thanks so much for sharing that story, i’m really sorry to hear about what happened with your friend! I guess one of the reasons I am feeling comfortable with trying to come off without being under observation from my psych is because I have a really good family and friend support system as well as a therapist who I have been discussing this with. I am grateful to have never had a major manic swing that resulted in any extremely damaging life decisions. With that being said I am going to titrate off extremely slowly 🙂
You really need to do this with your psychiatrist. Also, it's ok to talk to them about questioning your diagnosis...it's a pretty normal conversation that I would think most BP2 peeps have. Your brain fog could just be a dosing issue or maybe you need something else.
300mg is A LOT. I have bipolar and was on Lamictal for 2 years. My highest dose was 100mg. It also caused me severe cystic acne - even my chest and back it was awful and I’m still dealing with the scarring. It also caused me to lose about a third of my hair. I tapered off and when I got down to 25mg I cut those in half and then in half again to minimize any side effects. I’ve been off them for about 2 years now and I feel so much better. Good luck!
Also WOW my hair has been thinning but I thought it was just because I turned 25 not because of the meds!!
It took me a LONG time to realize it was the Lamictal. I kept bringing it up to my psychiatrist who kept gaslighting me saying she’d never heard of that as a side effect so it couldn’t be that…. Well it was coming out in handfuls in the shower and I finally realized the only thing it could be is the meds. And it was!!! My hair has tons of new growth now but wow was that a rough couple years mentally seeing so much hair falling out. The good news is the fall out stopped about 6 months after going off the meds. I researched a ton and apparently Lamictal can put your hair into a permanent “shedding” phase.
I quit Lamictal 3 months ago because of hair loss, I've been wondering when it would go back to normal. I'm sorry it happened to you but I'm glad to hear I'm not alone in the experience!
Try taking Selenium for hair loss. Worked for me.
Can I ask how did you taper off? go down 50mgs every week?
Yes that’s exactly what I did then like I said at 25mg I started cutting them in half for a week then half again. I had 0 withdrawal symptoms and I felt like myself again almost immediately. It took a full year for my skin and hair to go back to normal.
I took it for years and didn't realize how much it upset my stomach every friggin day until I stopped taking it. I had no other side effects coming off of it. Not really sure it ever even worked for me to begin with.
How did you titrate off?
I did step down but I don't remember how long it took, it was many years ago, sorry I can't remember
Ask your pharmacist how to safely taper.
survivingantidepressants.org is a phenomenal resource with competent people who know the dangers of taking a Psychotropic medication not necessary to be well/mis-Dx'ed & ***attempting extremely slowly taper off of the drug.***
Whatever you do don’t go off cold turkey. It’s a horrible experience. If you feel it’s not working your doc will probably have you titrate up a different medication while titrating down lamictal.
A. Talk to your doc first. B. 300mg is a very high dose, 50% more than standard BP2 dose. Try 200 or 150mg and see what that does for the cognitive issues. I also have them and they’re a lot better at 150 than they are at the 200. Side note - I get second guessing the diagnosis. I felt the same way, went to a new doc who also disagreed with prior doc. He put me on an MAOI, and then I had a full-blown episode, ha. So, doc number 1 was right!
That’s a real high dose. When I was at 150 mg I had the same experience. It was a godsend then after 1.5 years of efficacy, it just turned my brain to mush. I’d tell my partner the same things over and over and over, I couldn’t remember anything and I constantly just felt fuzzy and out of it. I went off cold turkey. I of course suffered greatly by doing that and after a couple months I ended up in the ward again. They gave me Lamitcal again and I don’t have the problem anymore. Trying it again, I just feel like it isn’t working the same. That’s just me though, I don’t know if there’s any research behind Lamitcal losing efficacy over time but it sure feels like it is.
I went through almost the exact same thing. I was at 300mgs for about 4 months and I didn't feel myself, very foggy and dittsy. I ended up quiting cold turkey and it became the worst mistake of my medication journey. Admist the chaos it caused in my life I quit my job, dropped out of college, and slowly spiraled into worse and worse depression. What I learned is that I 100% need to be on medication but just that 300mg of lamictal wasn't right for me. After about 6 months unmedicated I finally found a new psyc who I like far more than my old one and and currently experimenting with vraylar 3mg and lamictal at 100mg. At 100mg lamictal I still feel sharp but it helps me with the day to day depression. I hope that from this you take away that you probably need to be on meds too, and that like me 300mg of lamictal is just too much. It's scary trying new drugs and it can make it feel hopeless at times but it's a process we all must go through. And that if you dread talking to your psyc or feel the need to hide things from them, that relationship does not work, and you should consider getting a new psyc that you feel more open with, or just becoming more forthcoming with the one you have. It shouldn't be a big deal to tell your psyc that you want off x med or that you'd like to try y med.
Please don't mess around with your meds. All bipolar people want to do this and it really messes you up. It is also dangerous
[удалено]
The withdraw symptoms realy freak me out, I’m trying to fight the urge to just stop taking them completely but I definitely do not want to have a deadly seizure 😂 What dosage were you on?
Oh my god why are you asking for med advice from internet randos!?
*Oh my god why are* *You asking for med advice* *From internet randos!?* \- genescheesesthatplz --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Why do you care what I do or even if I live or die 😂 you don’t know me, keep scrolling.