Just so scared of taking meds.

So I've been depressed on and off for years. Who knows whether or not I also get hypomanic.. But the point is that my mother and probably 2 other family members have pretty severe bd 1 so my psychiatrist and I both agree that taking an anti depressant probably isn't smart, because I can't risk becoming manic. So we decided on lamotrigine. I could start tomorrow but as the title says; I'm so scared of all the side effects. Isn't there a safer option to regulate moods? I tried seroquel twice a good while ago but that doesn't work with my DID. Can anyone here advice for or against lamotrigine or tell me your experiences with it, etc? Thanks

Your doctor prescribed you the medication because he believes it's going to help you more than harm you and be overall beneficial to your quality of life. Lamictal is overall a pretty tolerable medication, the dreaded rash is extremely rare. I took lamictal for years with no problem, but I experience more intense manias than depressions so it didn't help too much. Try it out, and if you don't like it you can tell your pdoc you want to stop it. Hope all goes well for you.

My experience with Lamictal was that I had to take a large dose to help with the depression. This was done overtime. Like about 2 years time. I have a lot of depression, but I've been able to take antidepressants without going manic. But the antidepressants alone do nothing for me. I need an antipsychotic drug and the mood stabilizer to help get me stable. Even then, with situations in life, I seem to go up and down in mood, but not dangerously so. I experience moods swings and when my life is calm again, I am completely stable.

I'd say overall I've had a good experience with lamictal. I have zero side effects from it, and while I don't think it does as good a job at managing my cycling as lithium did (which gave me horrid side effects), the good outweighs the bad for me. I think my cycling and episodes would be much worse without it. I do however have to take Abilify with it in order to prevent/lessen mania.

I have been on Lamotrigine for 2 years and I think it's a good med. I never had any side effects from it. I'm on the max dose (400 mg) and like quietgirl said, it took a long time to reach that high of a dose. I have been on it with several anti-psychotics but after all the side-effects from those, I stopped taking them. I have been on just Lamotrigine for about 4 months, and aside from one month-long episode, I have been fine on it alone.

Also as quietgirl said, I have a lot of depression. I can honestly say that since I have been taking it, the depression I get is nowhere near being as bad as it is untreated.

Okay thanks a lot for encouraging me. I took the first pill this morning. It's good to know that I can stop taking them at any time. I know the rash is rare but I'm also worried about the other side effects like a tremor and aggression etc, and the long term side effects like osteoporosis. But I guess if it's helping me.. I'm so sick of always getting back to depression. But I understand it's still possible to become (hypo)manic?

I am not a Dr, but to my knowledge nothing really "treats" hypomania. My Dr. told me that you don't treat it. In my case (BP1) its more of a warning period, a phase where I have to watch and make sure I get enough sleep so that it doesn't tip over into mania. So, no, as far as I know Lamictal doesn't target hypomania, but what it does do is lessen the severity of your overall cycle, treat bipolar depression, and increase the time in between episodes.

Well if what I experience is hypomania it doesn't need to be lessened, as long as it doesn't get worse and indeed tip over into mania I'm happy. Thanks for the good info.

TheCollective wrote:Well if what I experience is hypomania it doesn't need to be lessened, as long as it doesn't get worse and indeed tip over into mania I'm happy. Thanks for the good info.

This made me remember something about BP2 though... in my BP Survival Guide it says you still need to watch hypomania because depression can follow it. All part of cycling. But as I posted before, if Lamictal is useful to you, it might really help. Good luck!

As Son said, Lamotrigine doesn't treat hypomania/mania. It's pretty much used to lessen bipolar depression. Anti-psychotics are typically used to treat hypomania/mania.