Lamictal?

IF you currently take, or have taken Lamictal, please share your experience with me.
Right now I'm stepping down from Remeron (Mirtazapine) because it's not helping. It gives me a constant headache, it's very sedating, and worst of all it increases my suicidal thoughts.
I told my new psychiatrist my concerns on August 8 and she increased the dose. I went along with it, because she said the sedative effects would actually reduce with an increase in dose and that the headache should go away. Both statements were not true for me. Increasing the dose made everything worse. She mentioned that we might try Lamictal if the Remeron didn't work out.
I called today and got the clinical psychologist insted. He said he'd try to get me a sooner appointment and told me to go ahead and start stepping down in dose.
I've been feeling incredibly depressed and I want my meds to be straightened out by the time school starts in 7 days. Looks as though I may not get my wish though.

Hello, sorry to hear you are going through a rough time. I was on lamictal at age 15 (I'm going on 23 now). I wish I could say it helped, but for me it was a terrible expirence. I was taking it to control my mood swings, however it only intensified them. I was taking a couple of other mefications at the time so always thought maybe it just didnt mix well in my system with one of them. And then about two years ago I was seeing a different Dr. (I don't see her now) and she suggested I tried lamictal again....I was very hesitant but gave it a go. After I started getting up to a good dose my mood swings started intensifying again so I got back off. But everyone is so different when it comes to medications. That's why there's so many kinds and doses. I hope things get better for you. Good luck!

I'm on Lamictal for BpII and I drink it at night. Works great for me.

Thanks for the replies guys.
So based on the replies, I have a 50/50 chance of doing well or horrible on it. Which is pretty much what I figured.
I did well on a different mood stabalizer Tegretol in the past, but it stopped working for me after I OD on it and lived. Haven't been on a med in that class since. Hopefully I won't get the imfamous Lamictal rash.

i wasn't on it for very long but while i was, it intensified my emotions to an extreme. it was scary. it works for a lot of people though, so maybe it's worth a try

I've been on Lamictal for 6 years now and it has been working pretty good for my mood, along my other medications.
I didn't get any bad side effects.

I'm starting to feel a little afraid to take Lamictal. The last thingI need is my mood swings intensified. They're already "scary".

I think overall, many people react well to Lamictal. I personally found it worsened my depression. Unless you get genetic testing done, you're going to end up trying various meds with that 50:50 chance it will work or won't. But keep trying to find what works for you. And the drug seems safe - as long as you titrate up slowly, you will probably not need to worry about the rash. I think it is not all that common.

Lamictal is the only medication I am currently on and it is wonderful!

I still have occasional emotional flare ups, but these are more manageable than what it was like on a mixture of medication and/or off the medication altogether.

Hope this helps,
~ Wolfy

Hi there!

I'm on Lamotrigine 100 mg since a couple of months ago but I've been taking it for around a year already for bipolar 2, together with lithium and risperidone. Well it's supposed to stabilize your mood and mine hasn't been stable for a long time, so I really don't know if it has worked on me or not, but at least my moods aren't more intense than before taking it, and I haven't had any important side effects besides acne, but they told me it could be caused by lithium too so I don't know. Also it doesn't sedate me and that's a good thing. In my opinion this med is quite harmless and it's supposed to work so you're probably going to be OK with it, but you know, every person is different