Antidepressants vs mood stabilizers

[A12345]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been diagnosed with major depression and ADD and am currently prescribed 300mg wellbutrin and 60mg adderall xr.

I have tried a dozen antidepressants in my life, and I guess the combination of these two is the most progress ive ever had. Basically when taking these two together, it feels kind of like a glimpse into what I would imagine non-depressed people feel like. (hope that makes sense.) Its nothing great or anything, but taking either of them alone does nothing.

 

I will be doing some tests with my psychiatrist this week to screen for bipolar disorder. I have always pushed away that possibility after being asked the question "Do you ever feel great about yourself/ super confident/ etc." I never ever feel overconfident, but most other mania symptoms i relate to.

 

Anyways, my question... has anyone ever been misdiagnosed with depression, and switched from antidepressants to mood stabilizers? I'm just wondering what difference you noticed, and if your life has improved or you feel more "normal".

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

[CeremonyNewOrder]

Yes I was first diagnosed with depression then bipolar and now schizoaffective disorder. It definitely made a difference with the meds I took and the outcome of treatment.

[tryp]

I am diagnosed with major depression - and I found that mood stabilizers (specifically Lamictal) have been far more effective than antidepressants for me.  I definitely have WAY less issues with depression.

[shesellsseashells]

I was diagnosed with MDD when I was 10.  I think it changed to bipolar disorder when I was in my 20s but I wasn't rediagnosed until my early 30s.  Throughout that time I took a variety of antidepressants.

 

I take a mood stabilizer (Lamictal) and an antidepressant (Prozac).  The combination is helpful for me.  I think that a lot of the trick is not only finding the right med but the right dose: meds were abandoned in the past because they weren't working, but the doses were always pretty low.  Where Lamictal was not so helpful at 200 mg it is much more helpful at 400 mg.  When I went back on Prozac a couple of months ago it made me hypomanic at 40 mg but once the Lamictal was raised I've been able to take 60 mg without much of a problem.  (I did have a week or so of very, very mild hypomania, but that passed).  I am more functional now than I have been in years.

 

I could never relate to the thinking I was invincible, either, until very recently.  My mania has included taking spontaneous trips, spending sprees, getting engrossed in a hobby and then ditching it altogether, and lots of cleaning and redecorating.  I spend most of my time being depressed when I am symptomatic.

 

I hope you're able to get your diagnosis pinned down soon.

[MiaB]

For what it's worth, my initial diagnoses were major depression, generalised anxiety and ADD.  I don't think that any of those are uncommon early diagnoses for BP patients The official bipolar diagnosis was triggered when I was put on Effexor XR and the wheels came off because I cannot tolerate antidepressants on their own.  I'm currently on 2 mood stabilisers (lithium and lamotrigine) - while they're not perfect, they certainly are safer and more effective for me than the AD's.  

 

Good luck as you negotiate this part of your treatment.

Edited June 1, 2014 by miab

[melissaw72]

Yes I was first diagnosed with depression then bipolar and now schizoaffective disorder. It definitely made a difference with the meds I took and the outcome of treatment.

 

^Same with me. 

 

But I don't think I was misdiagnosed with depression ... I think it was accurate, but then other things started happening that led into bipolar that led into SZA.  I have SZA and currrently take both AD's and mood stabilizers, and it works really well for me.

[Brenndo]

I was diagnosed Bipolar when I was 13 but I rejected the diagnosis when I got older. However, I had recurring episodes of severe depression. (I never notice my manias - ever - I always just think they're normal mood). Because the episodes were happening in the Winter and because I had Vitamin D deficiency, I was re-diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder. Then I had two consecutive manias triggered by antidepressants, then a mania that was psychotic and eventually a depression that was severely psychotic - I finally gave in to the fact that I was indeed Bipolar.

 

So I was never really misdiagnosed, but I forced people to question my diagnosis and it worked. Mainly by seeing a new psychiatrist and keeping details from him. Even so, when I saw him he put me on a low dose of Lamictal anyway. I always suspected that was because he thought I was Bipolar anyway.

[San]

I'm going to move this to the mood stabilizers forum. You'll probably have better luck with answers there.

I find mood stabilizers much more helpful, and you can add an antidepressant on them, too.

[melissaw72]

 

and if your life has improved or you feel more "normal".

 

My life definitely has improved when my meds were switched around, and we finally found the right cocktail to manage the MI.

[mcjimjam]

Yeah, I was treated for depression for years before being diagnosed with BP. Antidepressants on their own never worked for me. With a mood stabiliser, they do. The mood stabiliser is also important to stop the cycling and mixed or hypo/manic episodes.

[scream_phoenix]

What if you're the reverse?  You don't have mania but you're on an anticonvulsant/ mood stabilizer.  I'm on 200 mg of lamictal in addition to celexa.  I really don't know why it was started in the first place, more for anger and irritability from ptsd than anything else.  I haven't really tried any other mood stabilizer, and I'm afraid to go back down, but I really don't know what Lamictal does for me and wonder if there's something better.

[crtclms]

Lamictal is good for depression. People with MDD use it.

 

Why do you want to come off of it?

[Chimako]

I was diagnosed with situational anxiety and put on paxil.  A couple of years later, I was diagnosed with GAD, still on paxil but raised dose.  I've been hypomanic for years, although I didn't know it.  High pressure job sent me out into the stratosphere and one day in a fit of sanity I made an appt with a therapist.  Pdoc visits later, diagnosed with bipolar.  The pdoc had me on lithium and lamictal (after 6 months of hell).  I was still taking the paxil but pdoc slowly weaned me off it, which was another little hell.  Then weaned me down to a lower dose of lamictal which was nothing, I didn't notice anything.  

 

I definitely feel more stable without the paxil.  But on meds of course, don't know if stability would be there without the two L's.  Pdoc and tdoc agreed that the paxil was plainly doing no good since I was in a year's long hypomanic episode.  I expect if the depression ever came back, I'd have to take some kind of antidepressant.