For those who are normally sensitive to withdrawal from drugs, is going off Trileptal especially difficult?

For me going off Effexor, Lexapro and coming down on Risperdal are terrible and going off Zyprexa was an absolute nightmare (although I didn't taper off gradually enough). Going off tricyclics weren't so bad.

How is it coming off of Trileptal?

Ironically I may end up back on Zyprexa but if I do I will never go off it again for my entire life. I don't know yet, but want to know what I may be in for. Thanks.

DD had her dose reduced about a week ago from 1800 mg. a day to 1500 mg. Things seemed to be going well (she's been very stable for months now). Yesterday she forgot her 300 mg. mid-day dose and today she's been back to swinging up and down all day long. This also happened quite a number of months ago when they tried to titrate down to 1200 mg. I'm telling you this because it appears that you are going to tell very quickly at what point the dosage is not being effective. If you are completely titrating off, and don't need it for moods, maybe you won't have the return of mood problems. Good luck!

lemonflavor -

how long have you been on the trilepital, and what is your dose? when stopping trilepital, or any anticonvulsant medication, your prescribing doctor should be giving you a discontinuation schedule, so you can come off safely. it'll likely take a few weeks, unless your liver is about to explode or something and stopping the trilipetal is a medical emergency. usually you come off anticonvulsants as slowly as you started them.

there is no "withdrawl" in the traditional sense, but because anticonvulsants mess with various parts of your brain, stopping them suddenly can lower your seizure threshold - that is, make having seizures more likely for you. unlikely to happen, particularly if you have no history of seizure, but you still want to stop gradually, rather than all at once, just to be safe.

no discontinuation syndrome associated with trilepital, though, as far as i know. just follow the instructions of your doc, and you should be fine. luck!

I've been on 900mg for a month or two. I'm aware of the need for slow discontinuation and of course this would be directed by my pdoc, just wondering if I would get the same anxiety, brain zaps etc. from Trileptal as from other stuff.

it's extraordinarily unlikely you'll notice much of anything - i was slightly more sensitive to light and sound when i came off tegretol, but i have spazzy funbrain, and i am sensitive to light and sound mostly all the time. i've never heard of the brain zap phenomenon associated with ACs, though. if the trilepital was doing good things for you, you may notice the return of symptoms, but probably nothing in the way of withdrawl symptoms. so yay for that!

I have taken myself Trileptal a couple of times ran out a couple of times too. I take it for bipolar though not for seizures. I have every single time this tingling, numb feeling all over!! My face, my hands especially. If you have ever hyperventilated before it feels like that. Lasts a couple of days or so. Not sure why and never heard anyone else report this but it happens to me and so I thought I would pass it along.......

I have taken Tripeptal for about 2 months and had an allergic reaction and had to stop suddenly. I had to go off of 1200 mg per day at once. It has been terrible. I have that same numb, tingling feeling in my face and hands but ihave it in my legs and arms too. In addition, i ache all over and am incredibly weak like i have a really bad flu. I'm on my forth day without any trileptal and i am still having some severe withdrawls.

yes!!!! i have the same thing. i've been on 3600/day for like four years and i'm moving to lithium. i can't take both together--i have these wild hallucinations, almost--and i cannot how difficult it is to come down off trileptal. anyone know of anything that helps? my hands feel so...weird.

I am trying to come off Tripleptal as well, and it sucks. I feel flu-y and numb all over and my ankles have swollen up. I'm itchy and I'm thinking about going back on it just to not be sick.
There is indeed withdrawl.

i am still struggling with this---everything i read says non-addictive, easy to quit. yeah, whatever. and i am supposed to be getting on lithium. but i am having big problems with The Mighty Lith.

has anyone ever had any like sound or hearing issues with lithium? maybe it's a function of trileptal and lithium at the same time.

but seriously, i need something to help me get off trileptal or i'm just going back on it. i don't think a rehab would take me. hmmm...maybe i'll start drinking madly or doing heroin.

My girlfriend stared on psychiatric drugs a year and half ago for "depression". Since then she has had so many problems and goes into spells where she is not herself at all. Shes been on everything from Zoloft to lithium to Trileptal and gets a new diagnosis every few weeks for what she must have...shes been bipolar, and ODC and everything in between. Shes been on 2 or 3 of these psychiatric drugs at a time. Psychiatric doctors and the whole subject is complete bullcrap. I made her parents start to take her off and she is slowly recovering. The last one to go is Trileptal and its being hard to come off but Im sure she is going to be much better once she is totaly off. She went to being drugged up to a point she coudnt be around people with out freaking out to just having spells every once in awhile and side effects and withdrawal symptoms. psychiatric drugs stole a year and a half of our lives and made it miserable. If you are on any type of psychiatric drug I would recommend visiting http://chaada.org/ and reading the following books to better understand what is happening to your body and brain.

The Myth of Depression as Disease: by Allan Leventhal
Artificial Happiness: by Ronald Dworkin

I'm not just taking anyones word for it. I have experienced it first hand.

I'm going to basically ignore that entire post and the entire page it links to except for one thing. Near the top of that page is a picture from a newspaper of people from Eli Lilly donating money to support National Depression Screening Day. It seems to imply that their only possible motivation for that is that they're evil or that it's part of some vast conspiracy to get people to use their products (medications). Probably some combination of the two, judging by the tone taken. To that, I respond with this:

Oh my god! There's an EVIL VIDEO GAME CONSPIRACY after our children! The people who both produce and play the games are going after our kids when they're sick and at their most vulnerable to ensnare them with their nasty, horrible games and get them hooked on them for life! There is no possible way they could be doing it out of some motivation to help people or make their lives better, because it's clearly only for their own financial gain! Won't somebody think of the children and help stop this insidious plot?!

(Disclaimer: I'm probably in on the conspiracy, because not only do I take and advocate the use of psychiatric medications when justified or necessary, I grew up near McLean, presumably under their evil influence. On top of that, I'm an amateur game developer, avid consumer of games, and contribute to Child's Play yearly, so your kids, should you have any, are fucked. Also, you're an asshat (but you don't have to take my word for it; I've experienced it first-hand).)

I was going to make a "why anti-drug websites are dumb and can screw people over" but Nal's post was beter.

Good for you. Now send some of that happiness *MY* way. At this point I'll take artificial over biodegradable any day.

I love GTAsA and Unreal tournament. I wouldn't want a 8 year old playing then but to each his own. I don't give too much credit to CHAADA.org because they are extremely one sided but at least it gives some incite into the other side of the argument about psychiatric drugs. Drugs and video games are two very different things.

I recently forgot my Trileptal for a holiday trip and ceased taking it.(about 2 weeks ago)..I have been on 1200 mg / day for about 3 years. Frankly, I thought why not give the liver a break and just see what happens. The only things are - some kind of shakes or tinglies - and strange sensations in my face - like around the eyes / cheeks. Those symptoms for the most part stopped about 4 days after taking it or so. I am much much more awake - which is nice - and suddenly very sensitive to caffeine.

Your girlfriend sounds a bit like my daughter who at age 14 developed the list of symptoms you describe.
Her psychiatrists all said that they had never seen a case like hers and recommended that we take her back to our physician for more medical tests. It was discovered that she has chronic Lyme disease and while this treatment has taken over four years she is better. Please check into is.

Glenn

[color="#008000"][/color][size="4"][/size][font="Franklin Gothic Medium"][/font]

Watch out for counterfeits in Tripletal. I recently had all the numbness, tingly, shaky, feels like someone's zapping me with a cattle prod feelings. Couldn't figure it out and then realized it stopped abruptly when I started on a new bottle of Trileptal. This had happened once before and I thought I was crazy. I know now that they probably imported some Chinese shit and I took it. The maker was Watson Labs and usually everything has been good with them but there are all kinds of counterfeits nowadays. The pills looked identical but weren't. I'm on 600mg. for 8 years now. Can't imagine what it must feel like to come off of the megadoses. I never knew Trileptal was used for mood. Thanks for all the info out here.

I've noticed a slight tingling, but also a dizziness/lightheadedness when I forget a couple doses. It's not a dizziness I've felt before though, it kind of starts in my chest and resonates up through my head real fast. This sensation occurs more frequently the longer I go without the Trileptal. Has anyone else experienced this?

Funny how pill head people believe in these meds so strongly. Everyone I know who was experimented with on these drugs who just quit was normal and felt so much better after discontinuing. I'm never going to be pushed to taking overpriced, overrated, pills again. Conspiracy?, no just commercialism at it's absolute worst. If you have seizures, take your meds. If you are depressed, get off the couch, get some friends, get a hobby, or simply be a retard for the rest of your miserable life.

I'm really curious about Trileptal withdrawal too.

My sister was on something like 700 mg, went off cold turkey, and said she didn't notice a thing. I'm not sure how long she was on them though, and how consistently.

I've been on it for about a year, if not a tiny bit longer, and am on 225 mg. I reduced to 150 mg last night and plan on staying there for a few months. Does anyone know what I can expect for the next few days? My psychiatrist is rather useless sometimes when it comes to questions like these.

I wasn't even aware that it came in sizes small enough to add up to either of those numbers, or that it even did anything at that low a dose. Both times I was on it, I started at 300, which is actually fairly conservative and a single pill (I guess they might make a 150 that could be split, so you could end up with 225 that way if that exists. Yeah, thinking out loud...). I didn't notice anything at all starting right at 300 or stopping directly from there, either. It barely had any effect at 600mg/day and only really became noticeable at 900. I don't know about for mood, but at least for seizures the normal starting/stopping dose is 600mg/day, split between morning and night. Just based on my past experience and the usual dosing schedule, you should probably expect absolutely nothing for the next few days, unless you're unusually sensitive to it and have noticed a difference between such small amounts before.

Thank you for the reply.

My sister also started at 300 and worked her way up until she noticed a difference with her bipolar. It does come in 150 pills so I take a pill and a half to make the 225. I'm just pretty sensitive to drugs in general so not much is needed to have an effect. I suppose that's why i worry when it comes to withdrawal effects, that it'll be just as difficult to get off than it was to get on.

Coming off right now and having the same symptoms really bad. Major vibrations in my body too when trying to sleep. Horrible. Spiking blood pressure issues too that I usually don't have. Go slowly.