Just so scared of taking meds.

I'm at 100 mg now. Upping to 125 upcoming Monday. The thing that stands out to me the most is the sleep disorders. I wake up 5 times a night with bad dreams and once I even woke up my husband in the middle of the night thinking it was time to wake up. I have this alarm clock that requires me to solve 10 math questions and I was sure I solved them and thought my husband was over sleeping. The disrupted sleep becomes worse after every increase in dosage and does not fade. I was just wondering how many of you who are on lamotrigine are bothered by sleep disorders this much?
Also the meds aren't working yet. Aren't they supposed to be working by now? I have really severe down days. Just makes me want to give up really. So far all I experience of these meds is bad.

Give it time, it does take some time. Try not to be discouraged too much. Have faith in your doctor and in the correct meds and the correct dosage. I started on Lamictal and later had other meds added to that. But other people do great with just that one drug. Only time will tell. Keep us updated as you can. Trial and error on meds is not a great thing, but sometimes necessary to get you stable.

Nah I stopped taking them again. I feel better immediately. Slept awesome too. I was developing 7 or 8 big sores in my mouth and that was the last straw really. Scared the heck out of me. I also have a weird, extra reactivate patch of skin on my arm (I was born with) which was reacting really bad to the lamotrigine and it was driving me crazy itching and being ugly swollen. The docs don't know yet. Much less irritability, better mood, more energy, my nose is going back to normal too. After missing just 2 doses. This med is definitely not for me. I gave it a shot.

Definitely sounds like lamictal wasn't the med for you. If I were experiencing side effects like you, I would've stopped the medication as well. Would you be willing to try a different mood stabilizer?

Idk about trying a different mood stabilizer since they're all targeted to mania more (or is that not true?). But I am open to other meds yeah. Thanks for understanding why I stopped taking them

I was on Lamictal for about 6 months. I got off it because my skin was itching and I started having problems with my teeth and headaches. I regret getting off it because it didn't interfere too much with the body. Now I'm taking lithium, which is a lot more powerful.

Hello.

I am sorry the Lamotrigine did not work for you. I was perusing this thread again, and you mentioned wanting something more for depression, not just targeted at hypomania/mania? I don't know much about other mood stabilizers (as I have only been on Depakote and Lamotrigine) but there is an antipsychotic, Latuda, that works well for bipolar depression. When it was first introduced, it was seen to work well for depression, but not so much on hypomania/mania. But I think more recently studies have shown that is does work for them. Latuda doesn't have much side effects, although there are a list a possibilities, as with all meds. I was on it for a while, and did stop having depression, but a side effect that is like, a 3% chance of happening, happened to me big time, so I stopped it. Just throwing that out there, if you want to do some research on it.

My t said she thought that latuda is (only?) available in a depot version (once or twice monthly syringe?). First I'm going to have my hormonal birth control removed and see how that affects me. I had it implanted because I suffer from pretty bad pms stuff but I think my mood swings increased since then. Idk though.. Bad memory and all.. But I'm definitely trying some other meds in a while.

I never heard of Latuda being an injection. There are pills, from 20 mg - 120 mg forms, I think.

Is Depakote and depakine the same thing? I've started taking this about a week ago, 2 times a day 300. I feel depressed. And I want to eat everything I see. Normally I run but I don't have the energy to even finish my 5k that I usually run at least 3 times a week. Before the depakine I took 5 mg abilify but that did nothing for me. Well I was hypomanic when I started taking them and is gone now but idk if that is a result of the meds.
The point of this post is that I'd do anything in order not to ###$ up my life again. But weight gain is a very bad thing for me. Beats lamotrigine though. This sucks. I just realized that I'll probably have to keep taking meds forever with no guarantees that it will indeed keep the episodes at bay.