Alcohol and Lamictal - CrazyBoards

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Alcohol and Lamictal Rate Topic:

#61 lysergia

ripping off the bootstraps

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Posted 03 April 2009 - 08:54 AM

sabrina, on Apr 2 2009, 08:04 PM, said:

is there anyone who has these "jerks" who is taking lamictal?

yes, but they are no better or worse than before i took it. they're really annoying, and they scare me in the moment, but then i just forget about them. sucks when it happens when you're holding something and it goes flying though. :wacko:

current rx: bupropion SR 300mg, lamotrigine 200 mg, citalopram 20mg, 0.125 mg synthroid, 300mg B6, clonazepam in various doses, thc, nicotine, caffeine, refined sugar as needed
current dx: depression (maybe bp2), ptsd, ddNOS, anxiety NOS, narcolepsy/sleep disorder pending dx, ED issues, cat-induced insanity, motherhood
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#62 nalgas

Stand back! I'm going to try Science!

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Posted 03 April 2009 - 07:22 PM

sabrina, on Apr 2 2009, 07:04 PM, said:

im not gonna lie. i smoke weed. not alot but i do. and i drink. and it hasnt affected anything and believe my i am TERRIFIED of having a seizure. literally. sometimes i cant sleep at night because i have an anxiety attack about having one. but i never have one lol.

If you're that TERRIFIED, you may want to be cautious with the alcohol. That doesn't mean you can't have any ever, but they're not kidding when they say it makes seizures more likely. I have first-hand experience with that and tend to be more careful about it than when I was younger. Technically alcohol is an anticonvulsant to some extent, so the problem can end up being when it wears off (which is especially a problem for alcoholics in withdrawal, but it's still not the greatest thing if you're prone to seizures in the first place). Having half a dozen drinks at a time can be kind of like giving your brain a swift kick to the crotch when it comes to stuff like that. Less so if you're otherwise healthy and getting good sleep and all that, but it's still not entirely benign.

On the other hand, marijuana may prevent seizures, at least for some people. There's been some research into how the cannabinoid receptors are involved in the hope that it'll turn up new treatment ideas or directions for research for meds, so at least from a seizure point of view, you're probably not at much risk there (unless you're one of the special people who has some kind of paradoxical reaction to it...). It may or may not cause other problems, but that's not generally one of them.

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#63 Guest_justsaynocliche_*

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Post icon Posted 29 April 2009 - 12:25 AM

D, on Jan 12 2009, 09:10 PM, said:

My, that was a bit off the point. Yeah, I've mixed it. With alcohol, the hangovers sucked badly while on my way up to 200 mg/day. After taking it for a couple years, the massive hangover effect has slightly diminished (still worse I think). Also, hangovers don't seem to be as bad the second day if you ended up going out and drinking both nights on a weekend.

I wouldn't drink on it unless you are already climatized to the medication and feeling decent and stable. Obviously, it depends on how much you drink as well. I'm speaking more from the perspective of people drink to get drunk (or end up drunk sometimes). Even my psychiatrist says you can have 1-2 drinks on it occasionally if you aren't using it for epilepsy. Under those circumstances, the effects aren't too noticeable for me.

Reply: My boyfriend of two years is on 200mg of lamictal for bi-polar disorder. He takes it at 9:00 am every day. He eats breakfast at 11:00 am every day. He leaves for work at 1:23 pm every day. He starts work at 2:00 pm every day. He is loving and kind and thoughtful and works very hard to control his anger and unreasonable responses to "normal" stress (having to wait in line at jack in the box used to send him into a rage of yelling and beating the steering wheel and basically LOSING IT). I have noticed a HUGE improvement in his overall happiness. THEN HE STARTED SMOKING WEED.... :Trigger:

he detached from our relationship slowly but surely, he started getting annoyed by everything and anything, being very distant and void, and after about 6 mos started major depression, having crying fits, bursts of rage over the tiniest thing (not returning a movie to blockbuster a day early for him would induce punching-a-hole in-the-wall anger). He was a complete stranger and I had to leave him for a month before he realized what was happening and quit for good. He hasn't touched weed since. I have noticed a HUGE improvement and he thanks me every day. We went through the same thing with alcohol. He is so fun and charismatic and we would have a great time drinking, a glass of wine with sunset or saki bombs at the local sushi restaraunt. I was very unfamiliar with bi-polar and meds for it before all this. I began doing research when he started getting really moody and when we would wake up, i would be fine and he would be so depressed. It was like he wasn't taking the medication at all. I actually sat him down and asked him if he was taking his meds or if he had gone off them and was hiding. He listened to me as i asked him " when was the last day you didn't struggle all day?". He realized that he had been struggling so hardcore and it was largely due to the alcohol. After 2 weeks of not drinking he was a whole new man. we used to have a blast getting buzzed and dancing and being silly but nothing could be more rewarding for me than seeing him wake up feeling good and being able to sleep 8 hours at night and making love to me and having more good days than bad days. there are still bad days but he/we is/are able to get through them in one piece now.
After doing research I learned that alcohol can basically counteract or subtract the affect/benefit of lamictal and increase the symptoms of bi-polar. Also, since scientists don't actually know exactly how lamictal works, it doesn't surprise me that so many people have such a varied reaction. You may think it isn't affecting you but you may want to sit a partner or a loved one down and ask them to be honest with you. He didn't even realize how much more miserable he had become until it was right in his face.
All said and done, his quality of life, happiness, success at work and in friendships, health, self esteem, our relationship, is SO much better sans alcohol and rec. drugs. We find highs in life (i know it sounds so corny) but ziplining, rafting, salsa dancing, naked hide and go seek..... there a million more rewarding things to do than jepordize your life and relationships.

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#64 crtclms

Bitch Lover

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Posted 16 May 2009 - 05:47 AM

Argh, I don't want to hear that! I use Medical Cannabis for acute migraine pain, and just started Lamictal for bipolar tonight.

And the worst part is, the pot just touches the pain, it doesn't get rid of it; but I am not allowed to take enough narcotics as often as I would need to to deal with how many I get.

I might be, if Drs. didn't risk losing their licenses for properly treating chronic pain. But they do, so I can't. Gah.

crtclms

Dx: Bipolar NOS, with refractory Migraine
Rx: Depakote; Imitrex Tablets with Reglan; Imitrex injectables; Lamictal; Medical Cannabis; Prilosec; Wellbutrin; Xanax
FAIL: Amerge; Anaprox; Buspar; Di-Hydro-ergotamine, inhaled and injected; Inderal; Klonopin; Lithium; Neurontin; Propanalol; Prozac; Relpax; Sansert; Tegretol; Topamax; Trazadone; Verapamil; Zoloft

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#65 Guest_Renee_*

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Posted 16 September 2009 - 12:33 AM

I had exactly the same experience. I had a glass of wine, then another, and another, and suddenly a bottle and a half, and I felt nothing. The next day I decided to have a beer. Which turned into a 6 pack, and I never felt any different. Until I woke up in the morning and saw the recycling bin. So, I just stopped drinking. Which is actually kind of odd for me.

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#66 Guest_Meinemo_*

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Posted 29 December 2009 - 01:18 PM

Renee, on 16 September 2009 - 12:33 AM, said:

I don't feel much of the fun effects of alcohol, either. I do get more clumsy, unfortunately. I take 200-300mg lamotrigine (Teva generic only--the others don't work as well) for PTSD and MDD. If I have an empty stomach, I may get a buzz, but that's it. If I keep drinking, the room will start to spin before I feel drunk.

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#67 Bueler

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Posted 30 December 2009 - 09:53 PM

I wonder how much alcohol I can have on New Year's if I take 10 other sedatives and medications

Lol, I'm being facetious, but I would expect we're all questioning how well we can celebrate new year's on our meds, hehe.

DX: Bipolar NOS, Social Anxiety Disorder
RX: Lithium Carbonate 750mg, Celexa 40mg, Lamictal 200mg, Wellbutrin 150mg | PRN - Klonopin, Xanax, Seroquel

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#68 Guest_StepfordWife_*

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Posted 02 March 2010 - 04:32 AM

i have the horrible hangover effect on lamictal if i haven't drank for awhile. Eventually if you drink regularly you don't get them anymore. i have no idea why or if this means the drug isn't working anymore. i just know i was able to continue in my alcoholic adventures on lamictal but had to work up the amount i drank slowly and then start over whenever the dose was increased.

i recently went a couple of weeks without alcohol and the last 2 times i have drank i have had the hangover from hell. i'm not planning to get another one. For me this is going to be a good reason to just knock that shit out.

However if you aren't ready to stop self medicating...

Water will not help a lamictal+alcohol hangover much. The headache feels differnt than a dehydrated headache for me. Its more in the front, instead of all over.

Also... if you are a regular partaker of morning caffine do not forget to have some, or an excedrin. Its really easy to skip the caffine because your hangover is so bad and then not realize the headache is actually hanging on because you are going through caffine withdrawl. This is an easy mistake to make with any kind of hangover if you are caffine dependent. The hangover from caffine withdrawl is a bitch so if you keep chugging sports drinks and the headache isn't abating it could be your body just needs its caffine fix to come right.

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#69 Guest_ny girl_*

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Posted 10 March 2010 - 01:26 PM

I may switch from Lamictal to Topamax. Does anyone have any experience drinking while taking Topamax?

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#70 iguanita

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Posted 10 March 2010 - 02:59 PM

I haven't noticed any ill effects of alcohol while taking Lamictal and Wellbutrin. I don't think I feel the effects of alcohol as strongly as I had before being on meds. I am a regular drinker, a beer or two only with dinner or in the evening, but an occasional glass of wine. If I am at a social event (as mentioned earlier, Mardi Gras) I will drink more and I just don't really feel it as long as I pace myself. I got some really bad news last week and freaked out and drank 3 beers in about an hour. usually that would make me falling down drunk, but I only felt mildly dazed, a strong buzz. Not drunk at all. Weird. It did freak me out that I went for the alcohol like that during a time of stress, and I didn't drink anything for a week after. Had one beer last night and felt fine. I will note, however, that if I have taken or plan to take an ativan, I avoid alcohol completely.

------------------------------------------------------------
Dx - Dysthymia, BP II, GAD, PD
Possible other Dx as of yet TBD: OCD, Social Anxiety Disorder, Avoidant Personality Disorder, PTSD

Rx - Wellbutrin XL 300mg, Lamictal 200mg, Klonopin .5 mg, Ativan .5mg, Ambien 10mg
Previous Rx:
Celexa, Lexapro - made me hypomanic
Pristiq - worked for a bit, fizzled out, then had a terrible reaction tapering off of it

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#71 crtclms

Bitch Lover

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Posted 13 March 2010 - 10:49 PM

ny girl, on 10 March 2010 - 10:26 AM, said:

I may switch from Lamictal to Topamax. Does anyone have any experience drinking while taking Topamax?

Topomax is working really well for a lot of people. So I am just telling you why it didn't work for me, you have to see what your body does with it.

It damaged (slightly) my kidneys by screwing with my kidney function.

I had horrific gastro-intestinal side effects (when I say horrific, I am a bit over the top, but it was constant): diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, and just not feeling "right" in my intestinal regions.

And it gave me the stupids.

Again, it works REALLY well for some people. Please give it a try, if Lamictal is too activating.