A question for anyone on Lamictal... (about rash)

How do you like it?

Like you, i have had no success with ssris etc. And i wonder if i might be beyyer with lamictal as my main symptom is agitation.  I dont fet any highs. Can you tell me what brought you to think this might suit you? I want to discuss all this with my psychiatrist at our next appt. 

i hope you find it helps, please post again when you have tried it.

Hey Ann!  I have suspected it might work well for me because, like you, agitation was a big one for me on the standard ADs, specifically Prozac and Effexor.  The others did not much for but put me in a hopeless haze where I could function but had zero zest for life.  I credit Faith for sustaining me in a time where I could barely sustain myself.  But the Prozac/Effexor agitation was a terrifying state.  I'm someone who can be a terrifying, severe handful if I really get angry (extremely rarely), and these drugs put me in a state of borderline rage, so I had to get off immediately.  I remember being at work about 3 weeks into Prozac and having to take 2mg Xanax to calm down because I could not control how much anger was RANDOMLY bubbling up.  I also go through these extreme mood dips, like you, with not true high manic symptoms, but more like a week of being normal followed by a crushing low.  That cycle repeats itself constantly, sometimes a lot worse than others, but no sense of normalcy.   I told my Psych, "I've been dealing with anxiety for 15 years, I know what that is.  I also know what stress is.  This is something different.  Something (emphasis on the something) else is going on here.  I won't get into details on the therapy but he blew my mind, and when I told him I was done with the ADs and what he thought about a mood stabilizer, he said, "It's funny you say that because..."

And the rest is history.  Once I get these other things straightened out I will be starting Lamictal, most likely to ring in the new year.

Thank you for your most comprehensive reply.  I understand all you say and feel i may have a similar type of problem.  It is just so hard trying to get through when they keep saying its ‘anxiety’ when i feel like there is something making me restless from my core.  I too have had to discontinue anti deps as coukd never reach a therapeutic level. Cbt seemed fine but still the inner agitation prevails throughout.  I do find that some days i can feel depressed about it all, others not so bad.  I hope to ask about all this when i go next and hope to get through the xmas period as best i can before changes can be made. 

With lamictal, do you take it without any antidepressant or do they give you another one along with it? 

I, like you, just want to feel well again, its very hard on yourself and your family going through this.  Makes it worse when friends say, oh i just took prozac/sertraline/mirtazapine and felt much better!!!

I get where you're coming from with everything you just said.  I've tried 8 ADs in a row and kept hoping each would be the one, and it never was.  The human spirit is a remarkable thing, always chugging on.  Lamictal will be the only thing I will be taking, no AD along with it.  I tried all the separate levels of therapy, CBT, etc. and finding a Psychoanalytic psych. who really understands how to slowly peel back layers, has helped immensely.  More of a whole body, "who you are," approach, than a straight forward method.  Weird cause I thought it would never help, but slowly but surely it keeps blowing my mind how I leave feeling lighter, more refeshed.  

The only thing I have along side currently as I'm off all meds, is Xanax as needed, which at higher doses is a life saver for me. 

Pretty good. Keeps my mood relatively stable.