Lamictal withdrawals

tl;dr: Did Sunosi make you feel more sleepy? If you stopped taking it for any reason, did you get bad headaches/body aches or any other side effects/symptoms?
I've been taking 70mg of Vyvanse and 20-40mg of Ritalin as needed for about 4-5 years now, and the combo works "okay". It's kind of manageable, but not great. I tried Wakix for two months in 2022 but it made me depressed, and as I have bipolar II with a history of chronic depression that's a no-go, so I stopped. About four months ago I started Sunosi and was up to 150mg - and it felt like it did nothing to help with the sleepiness/exhaustion, and even seemed to make me feel more sleepy? Like with just the Vyvanse/Ritalin combo I still get sleep attacks where I need to lie down, but I can't actually sleep - I have to just relax as if I'm going to nap for at least 30-45 minutes and then I'm (usually) good to go. But with Sunosi in the mix I would actually fall asleep when I napped during the day and I couldn't nap for anything less than 45 minutes, usually more than an hour, which is not dissimilar to how it was before I took any stimulants. I didn't notice any emotional or mental side effects, pretty much just the sleepiness.
I stopped taking the Sunosi about a week ago to see if it was really making a difference, and now I'm definitely having more headaches/migraines than usual (I have chronic migraines as it is), and my regular medication doesn't always make it stop, but I can't be sure if it's from stopping the med or if my migraines are just acting up. I also felt *really* nauseated yesterday morning and actually had to leave work, and my stomach has felt kind of messed up in general. I do feel a bit less sleepy and foggy during the day, but the headaches really suck, and I feel like my pain levels have been worse in general too.
If you've been on Sunosi did you notice any negative effects (other than agitation)? Did you ever feel more sleepy? And if you stopped it, did you have any "withdrawal" symptoms or negative effects? Everything I've seen says that Sunosi doesn't cause withdrawal issues, but I've had some weird side effects with other meds that supposedly weren't common, so I just don't know.
For context: I have narcolepsy w/o cataplexy, bipolar II disorder, ADHD, chronic migraines, and am being evaluated for Ehler's-Danlos Syndrome. I take 70mg Vyvanse, 20-40mg Ritalin, 300mg of Lamictal, 100mg Zoloft, 10mg Abilify, 5mg rizatriptan as needed and just started Emgality injections for migraines

3 years ago I went to see a therapist once suicidal thoughts started to rise, as my mental health was deteriorating.
I was diagnosed with mood disorder being Unipolar.
He prescribed lamictal and I started titrating up to 100 mg and i helped alot.
But recently its cons exceeded its pros,
And that's annoying me so bad, i had perfect hair now i lost that perfection, I used to be the cool but staright As guy but now constant brain fog, can't concentrate at work, while studying even during buying my weekly groceries. I have a brain of a fish. Sometimes I make mistakes speaking my mother language imagine the other 2.
Studying is hell now. Brain fog ( check) Sleeping like a hibernating polar bear for long hours I still have some depression phases every now and then, but they don't last for long.
So long story short, I'm thinking about titrating down till I quit within a month and see how will it go.
So for those who got off it. 1) How were the withdrawals like? 2) did you feel fine after quitting or did the good ol' problems come back crawling? 3) did your memory come back to normal and your brain started functioning as sharp as it used to be?! 4) did your hair grow back 😢?
Thanks.

My doctors finally put me on Lamictal after I was unresponsive to all the antipsychotic medications they put me on. I'm on my second dose which is 12,5mg and it'll be gradually increased to 50mg in 3 weeks. The problem is that I feel worse already. I stopped taking Zyprexa because I was going to be on Lamictal which was my doctors decision. I don't know if it's because of the withdrawal symptoms of Zyprexa or Lamictal is just not for me. I have other mental illnesses and symptoms such as anxiety, traumatic stress and I feel like Lamictal is making them worse. Is this normal?

My entire life has been intense emotionally. I’ve had thoughts of s**cide and sh’d as a kid. I thought my brain was broken. I have never stuck to something. Any hobby I had tainted or quit from severe depression. Every hobby was started in the midst of a hypomanic episode. Anything I think belongs to me gets stripped out of my reach.
Everyone I know is graduating college and I am technically still a freshman because I can’t pick an area of study to save my life. I changed it almost every semester, then would get severely depressed and withdraw.
My highs were very high. I would think everything is going to be fixed and I got my spark back, then any point of living and trying would immediately vanish.
Anyway, I had a hypomanic episode that was particularly bad because of my ssri. Been on it for months, one particular time period I couldn’t sleep for longer than 3 hours a night. Debated to quit my job, cut my hair, runaway, take out a loan, etc etc.
My birthday comes up, I am rapidly cycling from being severely depressed ab where I am at, to being hyper motivated and passionate about life, then days later contemplating s**cide.
Mind you I discharged from my partial hospitalization facility because I was experiencing hypomanic episode and my treatment team thought i was just getting better :( No one could realize I was bipolar. I couldn’t myself.
Now, 22, diagnosed, and started titrating lamictal.
Feeling hopeful!
TL;DR: 22F diagnosed with bipolar II years after adhd, GAD, and MDD diagnosis. Stopping ssri, taking lamictal. Been on so many meds, never felt help. Hoping there will be a shift.

Hi All-- I posted most of the symptoms improvements in a reply but wanted to share in its own post. It's therapeutic for me to reflect on the progress, especially since I'm having a worse day today--those are fewer and farther between lately--and maybe others can benefit.
I've been on keto for about 4 months now. I've been doing a 2:1 modified Adkins, though its often more like 3:1 depending on the day, with <20 g net carbs. I've aimed for blood ketones above 2.0 mmol/l taken in the late afternoon and also maintaining above 1.0 upon waking. I took me about a month to figure out how to get to those levels consistently. Content of diet beyond the macros has been pretty normal though I've experimented with limiting dairy to goat cheese and butter recently. That restriction seems to help with some of the symptoms. I've done keto in the past with some benefit but not as strict with macros and was typically in lower levels of ketosis. I've been working with Nicole Laurent this round who has been great in helping me learn to do the diet consistent with known keto for mental health best practices and navigate anything unexpected that comes up. She's also been a great support in encouraging patience and recognizing the progress when it comes, plus healing isn't always easy as "waking up is hard to do." I've also found a supportive Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner who is relatively new to assisting with keto but has done Georgia Ede's clinician training. My therapist has become a convert as she's seen my significant progress the last few months.
Symptoms/illness-wise, I'm coming at this from a pretty complex place. Bipolar diagnosis after Zoloft induced manic episode at 18, treated with lithium other mood stabilizers, always paired with still an SSRI, usually celexa. Improved a lot in my late 20s/early 30s on just lithium and Adderall until doc thought Prozac to address anxiety would be a good idea. Cold turkeyed lithium, then the Prozac a year later and had a terrible Prozac withdrawal syndrome that maybe morphed into a bipolar mixed episode. I tried going back on lithium other drugs and the additions and changes just made things worse. I was left with long term effects from multiple drugs and symptoms of complex PTSD from the dysphoric states I endured. My cognitive functioning was about 50% of baseline based on a neuropsych exam, and I had to take 4 months off work in desperate hope of getting better with the time off. The recent years have been bad but even during the better stretches on lithium I never felt well and always like a part of me was missing--I don't know what of that was bipolar and what the dulling effects of lithium.
I started keto 3 months into the time off and have seen significant improvement with all my symptoms-- though I'll have clearer periods and then worsening.
Symptoms I've seen improve:
derealization -- this had been pretty bad, just lacking the crispness of life. While on keto, I've had the feeling of like watching a TV and it suddenly going from standard definition to HD...and then it would happen again. Gradually but at times I'd notice the difference and then kind of get used to it only to notice it again down the road.
tinnitus - I had developed terrible tinnitus after taking lamictal. It's improved significantly, again gradually and is probably 80% less frequent and 50% less intense when it occurs.
anxiety -- I had terrible anxiety and couldn't cope with most things in life. I often felt helpless and that if I confronted anymore adversity I couldn't respond. I]m handling a lot of adversity now.
Fatigue - I was really just dragging myself through every day and could barely get through them. This has gradually gotten better, and I now have energy to do things like clean up the kitchen at the end of the day. When you're not exhausted all the time, it's easier to enjoy life.
cognitive impairment -- this is a biggie as it was disabling and I couldn't perform my work as an attorney. I've noticed various brain functions gradually come back online. I went back to work in early February and have just gotten better and better. I'm able to think and reason again, and my memory's tremendously better. In some ways it's going back to before the Prozac misfortune but also back to my premorbid functioning, before the manic episode. This can be overwhelming at times as I have to process how I got by all those years and the brain reshaping itself creates some feeling of instability.
Sleep - I developed chronic sleep issues during the med changes/withdrawal mess and was too sensitive to take any drug or supplement that might help. I was waking up a lot before keto and usually couldn't go back to sleep, sometimes couldn't go to sleep at all. About 2-3 months in to keto, my sleep started improving a lot. I'm now reliably sleeping through the night most nights and get 6-7 hours. A few times I've been able to sleep in which had become foreign to me.
Executive functioning - I've gotten better at managing myself and my life. I can juggle a lot more and keep up with things. I'm more motivated and can make myself exercise consistently.
Feeling unsafe - this is one of my big PTSD symptoms. I just couldn't relax, ever, always self monitoring and monitoring my situation. Waiting for something to go wrong. This will take time to fully heal, but it's so much better now.
Revisiting -- another PTSD symptom. I was very much stuck in the past reliving certain events around my worsening. I couldn't step out the front door or take out the trash without thinking about things that happened in those settings. As with some other symptoms, it's not perfect, but I'm having more and longer periods where I'm just in the here and now. I can just walk outside and can just take the trash out.
Social anxiety -- At my worst I pretty much totally isolated, and was very withdrawn when around my immediate family that I couldn't isolate from. Each of these have gotten better, again gradually, and I can carry on normal conversations, joke and laugh again. I feel a desire to connect with people and am repairing the relationships I still have, including with my wife and kids.
I'm not fully healed and some days the symptoms come back or worsen. I've been through hell but really feel keto is laying the groundwork for long-term and complete healing. I've even started tapering lithium, under the supervision of a provider, down to 750 mg from 900 mg and feeling more stable than ever. I'm incredibly hopeful and can see the possibility of a full life again.

Hi everyone. I’m 23 and I got off Pristiq this past December and tapered to February. I had been on this SNRI for 6 years. I experienced SEVERE withdrawals including manic behavior (which has never happened in my life before) that put me in serious danger, brain zaps, a feeling of “cotton wool” in my brain, insomnia, crying bouts, diarrhea (still) and more. I went into the psych ward in January and they diagnosed me with bipolar (which my later drs disputed and believed it was all due to the withdrawal, now I’m just kind of waiting and seeing but there’s no doubt I was going through withdrawals..) and I was placed on 6 different meds in 10 days and that just screwed me up more - I left doped up and even more erratic. I had to take leave from my job and go back home for a few weeks to continue this withdrawal in outpatient care.
My NP from outpatient and I ultimately settled on paliperidone and risperdol to help the taper. I finished pristiq with these meds. Then when I came back at the end of February my meds were switched again by my psychiatrist to lamictal (which I was excited to try) and some other stuff I can’t even remember.. by the end of March I was so deeply suicidal that my mom had to come down and live with me for the month of April. At that point (end of March) I said fuck it that’s enough and just stopped all my meds. I seriously had a buffet of different meds over these last few months and I was sick of being at the whim of them, when the whole reason I started this process was because I was doing so consistently well that my Dr said I could get off..
Now it’s May and I had a massive panic attack yesterday and I am still so deeply depressed more than I have ever been before. I’m just so confused, upset and I feel like my life is ruined/over. My entire personality is gone, im not myself and don’t know how to have fun anymore, nothing feels pleasurable at all not even watching a tv show, im a recent post grad living alone and so that’s been a huge adjustment, and I had to put all my goals on hold and now I’m seriously doubting that I can ever reach them. I’m so stressed out about my career. I absolutely hate myself, feel like a failure/damaged goods, and every day is a fight against suicidal ideation. My negative thoughts feel almost impulsive and so hard to control and tbh I’m letting them win. I’ve been through a lot in my life, I have CPTSD, and I’ve always been super resilient and bright/outgoing/personable but this has really knocked me down and I feel like there is truly no coming back this time. I really feel that I don’t have the strength to fight any more..
If anyone has been through anything similar, please I’m looking for some hope/advice. I’ve seen people say that this can go on for over a year. I feel like I am changed forever and I’ve lost myself. I’m considering moving back home at this point.. I have been taking agmatine sulfate and omega 3s and that seems to help. I’m going to therapy twice a week, including EMDR. I exercise 2-3 times a week. I go to work. I’ve been sleeping well. I’m trying to coordinate outings with friends but it sucks bc I’m not myself and they can tell.. I feel like I’m in a hole and forever stuck. I can’t tell if at this point it’s withdrawals or just a mindset… thank you all for reading I know this was a lot/potentially confusing, any reply is deeply appreciated.

I’ve been stable for a couple years now (taking a mix of cymbalta, lamictal, and abilify), but every once in a while, I’ll have the “I’m deluding myself, I don’t actually need meds” thought and go off meds for 1-2 days.
When I go off meds, I IMMEDIATELY feel symptoms of hypomania the next day: not needing to sleep, excess energy/fidgeting, racing thoughts, the sudden urge to fix everything in my life in 24 hours, etc. As soon as I notice this happening, I go back to taking my meds.
I’m once again in my questioning if I have bipolar phase and I’m questioning if what I’m experiencing is really hypomania, and proof that my medication is working/keeping hypomania at bay? Is it possible to “rebound” that quickly? (And it’s always hypomania, not depression.) Or, is this just a withdrawal symptom and I don’t actually need these meds?

So I just spent the past 45 minutes crying my eyes out after checking the patient portal and seeing I had "sedative dependence" and "opioid dependence" disorder, along with "Social Fear (finding)" (no clue what that means), panic disorder with agoraphobia and moderate panic attacks, and Borderline Personality disorder added to my record. Plus GAD, ADHD and MDD that I already had. I was just in a partial program my current psych recommended, that I left after a week and a half because I didn't trust this bitch with my meds in her hand, and I CLEARLY said way to much and should not have gone, even though I made it very clear my legal rc benzo use was always low doses and never had any tolerance issues or incidents... I didn't hide it from my psych either though and my one before had all my information (I came to her from a partial program and she was very aware of my benzo wanting) but now it's ACTUALLY on my fucking records so I'm fucking done. I'm on Vyvanse and Pregabalin rn, along with Seroquel, Propranolol, Lamictal and weaning off Lithium, and I'm super concerned this is gonna end up being an issue. Pregabalin is the ONLY anxiety med I've tried (besides Klonopin when the weaned me off Bromazolam in the hospital) that's ever helped in any significant way and he said he was gonna up my dose to 300mg 2x a day after I got out of the partial and my last appointment he seemed normal and wasn't acting off. Even asked to confirm which CVS he was gonna send my Vyvanse script to this month. Ugh idk I'm just fucking panicking right now cuz my only hope was to bring it up to my current psych (had him for 6 months, tried to put it out there my first appointment but he didn't really say yes or no) or eventually get a new one who will script me Klonopin 0.5-1mg 3x a day cuz it's the only medication that makes me fully fucking normal (Klonopins like 90% while Pregabalin is maybe 30-40%, then 10% on top with the Propranolol). Yes, I get benzos come with tolerance and withdrawals etc etc I literally couldn't give any less fucks, I've tried to kill myself my whole damn life and just suffered until I finally found benzos (cuz how much they help) and I would for sure kms if I wasn't in the position I am rn where I don't really have to be in the world, just my own head (why the Pregab's enough rn). So it's either pain and suffering or tolerance issues and not being able to cold turkey, unlike SSRI'S.. I think I'll go with the latter. But anyways... someone make me feel better 🤧😔

I was on lexapro 5 mg for a couple months before we bumped it up to 10 mg due to irritability I had. The 10 mg caused me major depression and not great thoughts, and my psychiatrist had wanted me to try effexor when I first went to her. I was too scared of all the side effects and withdrawal I saw with jt when she did at the time but decided to give a shot this time. I’ve also been on lamictal for 4 weeks which I don’t think has been doing anything personally, it was suppose to help with my depression on lexapro.
We did 3 days of 5 mg lexapro, 37.5 mg effexor, 25 mg lamictal, then lowered the lexapro to 2.5 mg, and the 7th day was no lexapro. The 8th day was 75 mg effexor and in this process, was able to up to 50 mg lamictal.
I originally went on antidepressants due to anxiety (especially at that time was bad, I was having panic attacks and never had before) irritability, no energy or motivation. I feel like my anxiety was just really bad at that time bc it had never been before. Sure maybe the meds have made it make me think my anxiety is gone, but I don’t think so bc I still feel some light anxiety like I used to before I had panic attacks. I just feel normal but with more irritability. I don’t feel like effexor is doing anything. I had a burst of energy at first but only in the mornings and now I don’t. I was late on my dose by 2 hours and I had a headache and worse irritability. I also had an issue with wellbutrin, it made me really irritable and I’m feeling similar to that. I am waiting ADHD testing and just want to get off effexor and be off meds until I can get a diagnosis.
My question is, how bad will the withdrawal be? I know my psychiatrist wants me to just wait it out but I’m exhausted and I have a month long trip in 2 weeks to see my boyfriend in Spain and cannot afford to be like this, I was hoping to have things sorted by now. I also don’t want to be dealing with withdrawals there either. I’m planning on telling her to figure out a plan to get off it but what are the best things to help with it and/or how long did the symptoms last? Will they affect me after only 2 1/2 weeks? Or should I wait it out?

Been on Lamictal for a month. Started at 25mg and went up by 25 each week. Will I have withdrawals if I quit taking it after a week of being at 100mg?

So I’ve been on lamictal for 3 days now, and the past two nights I’ve noticed I’ll wake up around 3-4am, In sheer panic. It’s like someone shook me awake out of a deep sleep and I’m so confused and don’t know where I am, etc. like it takes me a minute to regain consciousness. Will I be ok if I skip tonight and see what my doctor says tomorrow? It also gives me night sweats as well.. I guess I should mention I’m going though adderall withdrawal, which I know doesn’t help: I’m just scared I’ll have a seizure if I stop taking the lamictal now, but it’s only been 3 days. Any advice?

i’ve been on lamictal for 3 weeks now, with increasing by 25 mg each week. my pyschiatrist won’t answer me, so i can’t get my next prescription. insurance doesn’t cover the refill either. i’m freaking out because i ran out and will have to cold turkey.
i’ve been panic searching on google and i really don’t want to have any chance of a seizure or brain zaps. will i get withdrawals if i’ve been on them for 3 weeks?
i’m 19f, i’m on lamictal for bpd. i dont have epilepsy.

Hi I need help. This will be a long story so please help me if possible thank you!!! I have been taking quetiapine, Zoloft and lamictal for about 4 months and I did not have a good experience with quetiapine since I used to take 200mg and when I raised it by 50mg it was ok but when I raised it to 300mg, I got really bad akathisia. I hate akathisia. And quetiapine makes me get a crazy appetite with heavy junk foods especially fried foods and heavy desserts such as cake and pastries. It's really bad and I of course gained weight from the appetite and even when I try to control my appetite I still strangely gain weight and I found out it was swollenness not weight gain from fat. I have a weak body which cannot tolerate certain things very highly sadly. Because of this I recently changed my meds to tarzodone for sleep 100mg at night and rexulti 0.5mg. First tarzodone did not help me sleep at all it actually made me more sleep deprived and the rexulti didn't seem to have any affect except for making me sick. I started to get mildly nauseous, pale, light headed and very cranky. So it finally happened, after 4 days of feeling this way I got severely sick I vomited 4 times at night and had diarrhea 9 times. That night I couldn't sleep of course. The next morning woke up very early from feeling crazy cold and sick I just went to drink some water of our crazy thirst and I vomited again right away. Diarrhea happened 4 more times that morning. Tried to eat some porridge since l had 0 appetite and needed to eat something light and says on the stomach vomited a hour later again. Diarrhea 3 times more again. That night sleep like a baby and sweated like crazy. Got a heat rash on my butt. The day after still felt sick but no vomit and just a little diarrhea in the morning. That night felt sick again very cold and light weight felt like a half way dead person. The day after felt like I was getting better but got sick again in the later in the day by feeling nauseous and stomach ache. Now it feels ok but even until now I am still sick I can't eat l'm hungry but not hungry and feel very light headed and have 0 energy. Can't even function properly. It's been almost a week since I first got sick severely. I went to urgent care and talked to my doctor my doctor is not willing to change my medications since she thinks quetiapine suits me best but it doesn't. Rexulti is way out of the picture. And tarzodone. I went back to quetiapine 100mg but I don't feel any affect right now except for a little akathisia. I am suffering. For urgent care they just said it's a stomach virus and it should stop within 2 days. It didn't. They gave me medication I vomited more. I don't know what's going on. I also went to my pop they said the same thing. Did this happen to me because of the withdrawal?

Hi I need help. This will be a long story so please help me if possible thank you!!! I have been taking quetiapine, Zoloft and lamictal for about 4 months and I did not have a good experience with quetiapine since I used to take 200mg and when I raised it by 50mg it was ok but when I raised it to 300mg, I got really bad akathisia. I hate akathisia. And quetiapine makes me get a crazy appetite with heavy junk foods especially fried foods and heavy desserts such as cake and pastries. It's really bad and I of course gained weight from the appetite and even when I try to control my appetite I still strangely gain weight and I found out it was swollenness not weight gain from fat. I have a weak body which cannot tolerate certain things very highly sadly. Because of this I recently changed my meds to tarzodone for sleep 100mg at night and rexulti 0.5mg. First tarzodone did not help me sleep at all it actually made me more sleep deprived and the rexulti didn't seem to have any affect except for making me sick. I started to get mildly nauseous, pale, light headed and very cranky. So it finally happened, after 4 days of feeling this way I got severely sick I vomited 4 times at night and had diarrhea 9 times. That night I couldn't sleep of course. The next morning woke up very early from feeling crazy cold and sick I just went to drink some water of our crazy thirst and I vomited again right away. Diarrhea happened 4 more times that morning. Tried to eat some porridge since l had 0 appetite and needed to eat something light and says on the stomach vomited a hour later again. Diarrhea 3 times more again. That night sleep like a baby and sweated like crazy. Got a heat rash on my butt. The day after still felt sick but no vomit and just a little diarrhea in the morning. That night felt sick again very cold and light weight felt like a half way dead person. The day after felt like I was getting better but got sick again in the later in the day by feeling nauseous and stomach ache. Now it feels ok but even until now I am still sick I can't eat l'm hungry but not hungry and feel very light headed and have 0 energy. Can't even function properly. It's been almost a week since I first got sick severely. I went to urgent care and talked to my doctor my doctor is not willing to change my medications since she thinks quetiapine suits me best but it doesn't. Rexulti is way out of the picture. And tarzodone. I went back to quetiapine 100mg but I don't feel any affect right now except for a little akathisia. I am suffering. For urgent care they just said it's a stomach virus and it should stop within 2 days. It didn't. They gave me medication I vomited more. I don't know what's going on. I also went to my pop they said the same thing. Did this happen to me because of the withdrawal?

Has anyone here experienced a particularly nasty transition off of an SSRI? I had my diagnosis changed from MDD to BP2 about three weeks ago, and as a result my doc wanted to add lamictal to my drug regimen, and take out Vilazodone (which I never felt helped me much anyways). Since the appt, I've been titrating up on my lamictal and down on my vilazodone simultaneously. Yesterday I increased my lamictal and had my first day with no Vilazodone whatsoever, and it's been a fucking nightmare. I've had horrible headaches, rapid mood swings, sobbing out of nowhere, brain zaps, etc. The worst though, was last night. I had the most vivid and horrifying nightmares I've ever had. They were so vivid and had layers (think dream in a dream inception style) that I couldn't tell if I was actually awake or not once I finally woke up. When I did wake up, I was convinced that there was a shadow entity in my bedroom that was going to hurt me and my wife (carryover from the nightmare). I was able to talk myself down and chalk the weirdness up to the SSRI withdrawal, but I sat awake in bed with the lights on for the rest of the night, afraid to fall back asleep. I'm now terrified to go to bed tonight, which sucks because I know how important sleep is to my mental health. I took a small dose (5mg) of vilazodone this morning, since it was the dosage I've taken for the last week and was completely fine on, and I think I'm just going to have to either suck it up and power through or taper down the last 5mg really slowly.

The dumbing down of my brain on Lamictal, has become too awful. I've watched it get worse over 20 years of being on it. I guess I am one of those who just has that reaction. Constant forgetting, paying bills twice, not at all, having to write reminders bec i will forget the thing i need to do within minutes. I have neuro checking alzheimers but the timing to the lamictal makes more sense (and possibly can be resolved as opposed to alzheimers)
So, I went from 300 mg -> 225 for two weeks ago, then read up more and decided to go more slowly, so I went back up to 262 for past week. Plan is to reduce by a 1/4 of a 150 tab every 3 weeks so i can see the results after 2-3 weeks after each time I lower.
Well the the effects of the 300->225 showed up yesterday at 6 am (the bump back up to 262 effect should show up in another week, so hopefully won't be as bad) but i lost it with the depression yesterday AM... suddenly hating my life, my family, seeing now future as happy etc etc. By 10 am, at least i was back to normal but I dread the thought of another wave of major depression popping up. I was scared to go to sleep last night.
I'm now desperate enough to add atypical antipsychotics to replace lamictal (despite my family having bad reactions). I DO prefer another mood stabilizer from the anti seizure family over antipsychotic but the bottom line is that I had no idea how much lamictal was holding me together. It's not the withdrawal that's killing me (i don't feel any of that yet), it's the lack of depression "containment". My husband jokes maybe it's better to be dumb but happier...
Tell me, has anyone has made it off of lamictal to get their brain back? I am praying my less than experienced doctor can come up with something but he doesn't even believe lamictal could cause me to forget, despite all the evidence i have found.

I was taking lamictal for bpd and depression and after three days i stopped after talking to the dr that is feel tired and sick she told me to stop. I feel really sleepy and unwell and nauseous.. please help is it this normal will it go away? What should i do?

Looking for a stack for when your relationship and professional life falls apart. CPTSD, and high functioning autistic. In complete withdrawal. Need to become functional. Severe depression, and constant knot in stomach.
amitriptyline 50mg + lamictal 25mg + wellbutrin 75mg
Started amitriptyline a month ago. Lamictal a few days ago, will slowy increase to 75mg. Wellbutrin I haven't started yet.
This combination at low doses is to reduce the intensity of fight-light.
Amitriptyline to calm nervous knot in stomach which has triggered IBD
Lamictal for rumination, intense irritability, anger. And lifting the severe depression.
Wellbutrin for mild stimulation, and depression
I was thinking of occasional Seroquel when it gets way too much. PRN 6mg. But I’m terrified of antipsychotics. My psych suggested this as an option a year ago, but I was not ready to take any psych meds then. Since then I’ve got much worse
I’ve aimed for low doses to reduce side effects, and to potentiate each other. Normally would see psych but I’m travelling abroad, desperate and feeling paralysed. Will see psych in a few months.
Any other options you can think off would be great. I have a good GP here who trusts me, and will prescribe anything I’ve obsessively read up on.

I've had drug induced manic episodes in the past and have been through some psychotic episodes after heavy psychedelic experiences.
I'm titrating off lamictal and going through the withdrawal process.
Part of my experience has been getting into a fog -like state where nothing seems real and I can't keep up with conversation.
I have issues processing things and experience a type of brain fog.
It'll last a few hours and then I'll have a clear head for a bit.
Do any of you feel like you're underwater during an episode? Where sensory processing is dulled and memory and emotional affect go to shit?

I’m 27F and have had clear skin my entire life. I recently medically retired from the military and have been struggling to get in with the VA. I ran out of Lamictal in December and haven’t been on any meds since. Once I stopped taking it due to running out my skin has been breaking out so bad. I know that sometimes when you start the medication it can cause skin irritation/rash or breakouts but does anyone know if abruptly stopping it can cause a break out as well? I have really sensitive skin and when I was in I got acne here and there when I started the medication and was prescribed Tretinoin but it just made me break out worse/dried out my skin so bad no matter how I applied it in my routine.
Any help, advice or if someone who also struggles with sensitive skin can give me recommendations on how to get the tretinoin to work on my skin would be greatly appreciated 😭

Hi folks.
It's a long story but I haven't been able to pick up my dose of lamictal for tonight. I now have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.
I'm concerned about going into withdrawal. I have some abilify there leftover from when I was on them.
If I took one of them in replacement of tonight's lamictal, would that counteract any withdrawal?
Any help would be much appreciated.

I couldn’t afford my meds so I went 3 weeks without lamictal and lurasidone and I was wondering if anyone else has experienced severe physical symptoms? I spoke to a nurse practitioner who said that my withdrawal symptoms shouldn’t be as bad as they were and that it’s only bad if you go over a month without— she made me feel like I was being dramatic but it really did feel THAT bad. Within 4 days of being off my meds I experienced BAD dizziness, light headedness, and feeling like I was going to pass out periodically. It got worse and worse the longer time went on. It started with only happening when I stood up but escalated into happening randomly when I was standing, sitting, or even laying down without having moved. I collapsed multiple times, not fully losing consciousness but close. On top of this I had extreme fatigue to the point of not being able to get out of bed unless it was for work. Overall my body felt so so heavy, I would compare it to when I woke up from anesthesia after surgery. And I had really bad heart palpitations during this time, major confusion too. Has anyone else had this happen?