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I've read numerous testimonials that Lithium Orotate (basically an over-the-counter supplement, NOT Lithium Carbonate) can be very effective in mood stabilization. This is using a very low dose (like as low as 5-10mg), so it is not prescription strength, it does not have the same extreme side effects as Lithium. Can anyone comment on this?? I'm sensitive to med side effects, and I've been wanting to go more natural & off of Lamictal (which doesn't do much) -- I'm considering this instead...

Hello, I am currently on two medications, Zoloft 100mg and Lyrica 300mg, and had sort of a weird bought of mood swings over the last two weeks that may have been just work related though I was feeling agitated one day, and flat and depressed the next few days. Now I am sort of about as normal as normal gets, for now. Different medications have been suggested to me for managing bipolar II and I am sort of hesitant to try something in addition to what I am already on because what if my medication trial goes side ways and it makes me worse? I know start up can be rough but I just don't know if things are bad enough now to start messing around. I was feeling anxious and scared about work (enough that I took a day off to reset myself) and wondered if I could benefit from different meds that are more in-line for treating bipolar disorder. I feel kind of stuck and wish I was starting from where I am on no meds to transitioning to 1st line treatment for bipolar. Any thoughts? Anyone start out on meds for MDD and anxiety transition well to meds for bipolar? Med changes are never fun in my experience.

Okay so I'm on a lot of meds now and just started seeing a new pdoc who's thinking of making some serious changes. I have bipolar, anxiety, ADHD, hypothyroidism, and a pituitary tumor. When I was first diagnosed with BP, I was on lithium and seroquel, which worked well enough until I got depressed enough to get hospitalized a second time. That's when I added klonopin and switched to depakote because lithium was starting to affect my kidneys. This combo controls my mania more than my depression and my anxiety is still bad. My previous pdoc added Strattera for the ADHD but I'm not sure it's actually doing anything. She also added a small dose of trazadone because I was having trouble falling asleep. That helps but also might be making me sleep too much. Anyway, new pdoc suggested replacing the seroquel and/or the depakote due to weight issues and fatty liver (which may be from the depakote or just cause I'm fat who knows). He thinks Saphris could replace Seroquel and be better from a weight perspective. However, I'm dependent on Seroquel for sleep in addition to my other meds, and it doesn't seem like Saphris has that same effect. I'm more open to changing up the Depakote since I gained a lot of weight on it, but I don't know how good the other mood stabilizers are with mania, which has caused big problems in the past. Does anyone know much about Saphris and sleep or weight gain? And what other mood stabilizers might be good (i.e. More weight neutral and helpful for depression and mania).

Hello there, So I'm getting evaluated for Bipolar disorder on Thursday and during this waiting period, I thought I'd do some in depth research on the disorder. I'm 98% sure I'm going to get diagnosed with Bipolar II or Bipolar NOS (due to how rapid my cycles sometimes are), and since I'm on an antidepressant right now, I needed to see what meds Bipolar folk usually take. That's when I found out about mood stabilizers and all the ugly side effects that come along with them. To be honest, I'm scared to try any of them with everything that I've read. I just need an antidepressant to keep me out of the depression I get. The hypomanic episodes I get aren't that bad. I'm not driving recklessly, I can control my shopping sprees and irresponsible flirting if I try, and the hypomanic moods keep me peppy at work. Who wouldn't want that??? ...If it weren't for just how low those depressive episodes of mine get, I'd scrap the idea of meds altogether, but I can't. Without meds, I can't get out of bed (though my current meds hardly help that, now that I think about it), I'm emotionless or sad all of the time, I isolate, and I sometimes start to contemplate whether the world would be better off without me. It's really awful... but with the plethora of mood stabilizer side effects, is it even really worth it to try with those? I guess only my psychiatrist would know the answer to that (I question her judgement sometimes, though, since she tried putting me on an antidepressant again that previously made me suicidal the last time I needed to switch meds), but I thought I'd ask you guys: Do you think you're better off with / without mood stabilizers? And why or why not?

Lamictal is working well to balance my mood. Problem is, my apathy & motivation level is still in the dumps. I am also concerned about longterm cognitive effects that many people experience on Lamictal, worsening issues I already have (executive function/mental processing speed, memory difficulties, etc) I was previously on Ritalin (alone) and felt it helped with the above issues. Does being on a Mood Stabilizer cancel out the effects of a stimulant (Ritalin)? I wonder if the Lamictal will dampen Ritalin's effects because it is used to cut mania/high stimulation/impulses? Any thoughts?

I have been going crazyyy! Well, not that I wasn't anyways... So! I have been on 400mg of lamictal for 2 years in November. I didn't have any side effects or issues with it and it has literally saved me from myself and my life. Doc likes to experiment with me or something idk because he tried putting me on abilify, geodone, and carbamezepine, and topamax... Honestly I only took one geodone or however it's spelled, and I felt like a zombie all the next day so yeah didn't take anymore! The carba and abilify I didn't even try taking as I'm super super paranoid about weight gain.. (Eating disorder) However I DID take topamax for almost a month. Doc put me on this because one appt I was a frantic whiny mess because I had been purging maniacally and hating myself etc and he told me it would be great for me because more people on it are likely to lose. So duh yeah I was stoked.. The first day after I took it I was at story time at the library with my son and all of a sudden I felt extremely nauseated and sweaty palms feeling like something horrible was gonna happen but didn't know what. Never experienced anything like it before but it scared me so I zoomed out frantically and went home and the feeling left as soon as I got in my house. I will later learn this as anxiety and panic WHICH I HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE! (my heart really goes out to those who do/have had it) so anyhow I keep taking it loving the fact that I can go all day without eating or thinking about food. . As the days go by every time I up it as prescribed 25mg a week then 50 a week then 75 then 100 final dose I feel worse! So I just think it'll die down as I stay on it and get used to it so I suffered along because the no food thing was great, such an ED thought. But I finally had enough because it was just that bad. Doc tells me to just stop taking it. So I did thinking I'd go back to myself again. It has been over a month off it and I am still experiencing these attacks panic feelings or whatever the crap it is! It's seriously bad that I have basically turned into a recluse almost and am terrified to leave the house because whenever I do the feeling comes again. I have been able to go for walks and such without feeling too bad but the car and indoors??? Hell no. I am at such a loss at what to do or what is going on with me it's seriously depressing. I also have had extreme nausea and stomach pains although they have died down the past week or so. Basically I am asking if anyone has insight or perhaps gone through or is going through the same thing???? It's horrible!!! My husband thinks it is all in my head but it isn't!!! I guess that's what you'd think of a crazy person though lol Oh and doc prescribed me xanax at last appt to help with it but I refuse to take it as it's a controlled substance and I am a recovering alcoholic. Thinking about asking for celexa?

I am posting this here because it isn't about any specific type of medicine, otherwise I would have posted it below in that section. But if I overlooked a section down there, admins, please feel free to move it. Anyway, I have been having some issues with [minor, though bothersome] side-effects for a while now and was just curious as to whether any of you might have some thoughts/insights or suggestions for me as to what meds/kind of meds you have experience with that I might bring up with my pdoc. When I first began treatment a few years ago my first pdoc put me on abilify (10m; later lowered to 7.5mg). I was on abilify for a few years, and, though it worked wonders at controlling my symptoms, it made me gain a shit-ton of weight (when I started I was about 160lbs, now I'm about 220lbs!). So my new pdoc, out of health worries (due to the weight gain) is currently weaning me off of the abilify and has put me on lithium (1200mg). I was hesitant to go on lithium because I had heard it interacts with psoriasis. I've had a mild case of psoriasis since, oh, my late teens or so (before then it was minor). I brought this up with my pdoc, but she had no idea what I was talking about. I opted to give the lithium a try anyway since I was going to be going to see a dermatologist soon. So, I saw the dermatologist, but I had barely started on the lithium, so there was no real difference in my psoriasis then. But in the few months since then, my psoriasis has fucking exploded! I am getting it in places it never was before and it is no-doubt due to the lithium (the dermatologist confirmed to me that lithium does in fact cause psoriasis flare-ups... and my pdoc looked it up online, so, yeah). So, my question(s) is/are... have any of you ever had similar problems? I will assume weight gain because I have seen it around the boards before, but how about the psoriasis or similar conditions? What do you think are the best meds or best kind of meds with limited side-effects (overall. I mean, I know it varies from person to person.). I will be honest, I can deal with side-effects like nausea, diarrhea, spacing out, etc., it's really the weight gain and psoriasis I'm worried about. Basically, have you been on any weight-neutral mood stabilizer or APs that have worked well for you that I might look into and ask my pdoc about? My AD is fine. Working great. No side-effects. It's primarily mood stabilizers/APs I'm curious about. Initially, I went with the lithium because I underestimated the psoriasis flare-ups and I figured, "sanity over vanity," but it's seriously getting ridiculous. I see my pdoc on Thursday and my dermatologist on May 11. Should I bring up a switch in meds Thursday or wait it out until I see my dermatologist? I'm going to ask the dermatologist about a pill to fight the psoriasis from the inside, but I'm not sure if it will be powerful enough to ward off the effects of the lithium. Okay, this is getting long, so I'll end it here. Thanks in advance for any input!

Hi, In early spring my therapist and psychiatrist found out that I still have some depression even though I'm on 300mg of Lamictal and 25mg of Seroquel. They did testing and put me on Lexapro. It worked really well, after a couple of months my life got a lot better. But I had extreme sexual dysfunction. So my psychiatrist switched me to Wellbutrin but I had every adverse effect: puking, flu symptoms, zappy stuff, etc. AND it caused a little bit of mania or hypomania - probably something in-between. It was the old mania I used to have before I was on Lamictal, which was a lot of agitation/anger that I had no control over. There were some other heightened mania things that I only experience when a drug causes the mania or my brain runs low on Lamictal. So what the heck anti-depressant can I take that won't cause mania and won't cause me to gain weight? Am I doomed? This is making me sick, I'm so tired of being mentally ill. I just want to not be depressed, not gain weight, not have uncontrollable anger and continue to have sex with my husband. Before I got on Lamictal I tried: - prozac, didn't work - paxil, didn't work - effexor, didn't work - elavil, made me hate everybody and I wanted to hurt myself - celexa, caused hypomania and the next day I was re-diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I had been diagnosed a decade previously when I was a teenager but this time I was so sick of being out of control that I followed through with care. Now that I'm on a mood stabilizer I suppose it's time to go through all the SSRIs and SNRIs again. One drug that I haven't tried is Zoloft so that could be the final answer. But what. the. fuck!! I am so tired of trying to find the third drug that will eliminate my depression, I almost want to give up and deal with that lingering sadness on my own. My doctors will not be happy with that. Who's on a similar combo with similar problems? Anybody? I know a lot about these drugs but I don't know what one's gonna do it for my depression at this point. It's like playing poker and I'm sick of it. Thanks.