Lamitral

[addicted32]

I need some advise.  My boyfriend thinks i'm physchotic and says I'm an emotional mess.  Couldn't it be the person your with that makes you feel that way.  He hurts me(he got wasted on mothers'day and said I was white trash) He doesn't remember it.  I share my house with him and he walks around the house whistling and happy in a good mood while I'm ready to punch his brains out.  I get so angry trying to talk to him I scream and want to hit him.  I told the physchiatrist this and she said I needed a mood stabilizer. Im on wellbutrin now and told her I think its helping me.  She said it clearly isn't but I'm also tappering off of oxycontin too.  I don't know if I should take the mood stabilizer it seems to have alot of side effects.  Did anyone try Lamitral?  My fiance also has had 4 DUI's in th past and currently smokes pot.  He sees nothing wrong with that.  I can't determine if my withdrawls are causing me to act this way or if its him.  I will admit I can't control my anger I want to hit and throw **** and I yell.  I can't calm down unless I take a pill.  Pills help me and my mood.  So whats so bad about that? .

[bpchrisb]

Let me get this right; you pitched the Lamictal?

It's your call, but it's honestly the best mood stabilizer out there. Again, the rash potential is no way NEAR as high as it has been reported. Plus, you're going to run the risk of that rash with any mood stabilizer other than Lithium. Your shrink is making a good suggestion, I'd stick with it. It saved my life.

[bpchrisb]

1. Withdrawing from opiates is nasty, nasty stuff. I went through it once, just with small doses of Vicodin and it sucked.

2. If you're BP, Wellbutrin is bad choice of medications. I had a psychotic break on it and haven't heard of BP folks having much experience with it.

3. Lamictal is the best medication I have ever been on. I went from being a suicidal wreck to completely stable with just 25mgs of it. The rash potential has been blown out of proportion; the chance of getting the rash is very, very low. During the initial studies, there were mitigating factors; the dosage was being jacked up, people were placed on it along with Depakote (Depakote can cause the same rash) and it was much, much more prevalent in children. Out patient studies have actually placed the chance of getting the rash at 1:13,000 and some have stated that it's even more rare.

The one warning with Lamictal; it was dry out your skin kike you wouldn't believe, especially with increases in dosage. It gave me contact dermatitis and aggravated bug bites and it scared me. But, my shrink was patient with it because she knew that if she shipped me down to the hospital with it, they'd pull me off of it cold-turkey and I'd end up in the psych center as a result. So, she sent me to a dermatologist who realized that it was just dry skin problems; quite the relief. There are more telling symptoms of the allergic reaction than just a rash (swelling of the throat, tongue, etc..). If that happens, hammer back a bunch of benadryl and go to the hospital. A rash caused by dry skin is a common side effect and there is a difference between that rash and the lethal one.

[addicted32]

I threw the pills away im not taking that drug it sounds horrible!  As for the boyfriend your right problem is we have 4 month old son.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes withdrawing from any medication especially one with such a potential for a person to build up a tolerance to such as Oxycontin can easily cause a wide variety of symptoms including severe agitation. Wellbutrin is an anti-depressent and if a person is diagnosed with bipolar generally what they require is a full mood stabilizer and an anti-depressent alone can sometimes worsen mania. You could speak to your psychiatrist more about this. Lamictal is a very good mood stabilizer (although each person responds differently to each medication) and it was helpful for me for mixed states (the combination of the speeded up quality of mania with the down aspect of depression, in an agitated mixed state a person can feel angry at the world and not know why). Lamictal has a reasonable side effect profile. The potential for a rare rash (1 in a thousand people which lessens over time) is mitigated by the FDA requirement that it be titrated at a 25 mg. per week dosage. Unlike other mood stabilizers it does not require regular blood tests. You could discuss all this with your psychiatrist. As for your boyfriend from the way you describe him it sounds like he is acting in a manner that is emotionally abusive and perhaps its time to move on.