Yes, I understand, Odee. I hope your relationship with your parents is good, because if problems exist they could trigger your depression.

I took Lamictal, too, but gradually developed an intolerance to it so that even 15 mg would
push me into mild hypomanic state. One was enough. I dropped it, and because
I had made recommended changes in my diet, my pschiatrist recommended just
taking an aspirin.

I feel sure you've heard this before, but these are the things I was told by my
pschiatrist to do (and if you're sensitive to any of them, you should remove them from your diet completely.)

1. Do not eat or drink anything containing caffeine; it makes bipolar illness worse.
That would include coffee, tea, chocolate (which has theobromine, a first cousin to
caffeine, and reacts more negatively with me than caffeine), and anything else that has caffeine in it.

2. Do not drink alcohol; it makes bipolar illness worse. It's a depressant that you
need to avoid completely. Your brain will appreciate it, and so will your feeling tone.

3. Take your meds.

4. Maintain a regular sleep schedule if at all possible.

Over the years some other things have proved helpful for me; they might work for you, too.

1. The use of the "lemon thing" when tension is high. Squeeze two fresh lemons into 8 oz of water; drink it. If you aren't better in 4 hours, repeat the process; that should relieve the acid symptoms that build from meds and a diet that has too many acid-digesting foods in it. (There are websites that list alkaline and acid foods which you might wish to refer to.)

2. Keep a slightly more alkaline state of fluids and tissues, cutting back on red meats, sausages, anything that is beef, pork, liver, etc. Avoid wheat, milk products, including
cheese, cream, sour cream, milk, ice cream, etc. Ice cream is particularly bad for us.

3. Eat more green vegetables and salads. (Have a large salad daily.)

4. Do not drink sodas. They are extremely acid and aspartame (an artificial sweetener is extremely acid-reacting in the system, not to mention the negative
effects of caffeine in some of them.)

5. Add Omega 3's to your diet. Research now has proven that Omega 3's are helpful for improving symptoms in bipolar illness. I use Nordic Omega 3's, but there are many others out there that are equally as effective. About 2 or 3 capsules per day alleviates several problems in bipolar illness. (It was probably the most effective thing I did in a pro-active effort to correct the symptoms of the illness.)

6. Insist on having a regularly scheduled sleep schedule. Loss of sleep is as harmful as anything that can happen to us, in my view, in relation to bipolar symptoms. If
you have problems with that, please ask your psychiatrist for help until your system settles back into a calm modus operandi. Clonazepam (Klonopin) is very helpful for
me only on occasion.

7. Be gentle with yourself and avoid negativism as much as possible.

You should begin to see benefits in very short order, particularly if you start the Omega 3 fatty acids very soon.

Take good care of yourself, and you'll be fine.

(I take now only 10 mg. Prozac once a day and a food medication called Deplin., 15 mg. You might want to check that website and learn what it does for the system.)