Well, last week I tried to taper off of my Lamotrigine starting with a 12.5% decrease in dosage. The first two days I felt a bit more present, the brain fog somewhat dissipated, and had a moderate headache with some minor sleep disturbance, but on the third night I had a few electric shocks through my body, felt itchy, skin kind of burning, and at about 4 am woke up and felt fear, fear, and more fear; deathly afraid and suicidal and please don't hurt me thing that does not exist. I'd had moderate anxiety issues, practically normal, until withdrawal from Temazepam. Needless to say I went back to 300mg that evening. Even so, I have spent that weekend and most of this week in dysphoric mania, suicidal ideation ramping up significantly alongside homicidal thoughts directed towards sources of stress.

If I had not learned so many methods to cope with symptoms caused by withdrawal when I discontinued Mirtazapine and tapered Temazepam I think matters could have become unmanageable. Although, if I hadn't gone through those withdrawals my reaction to tapering Lamotrigine would most likely be far less severe, perhaps even negligible. It may be that I simply need more time to recover from the...damage? trauma? Idk. For me, withdrawal from psychotropics has been painful and destructive. I never want to do it again, but I'll have to soon enough if I'm ever to feel alive, to have a reason to exist, goals I desire to achieve...it's been a very bad year in large part due to withdrawal.

Taper, always taper, reduce stress, get sleep (darkness therapy, time release melatonin), a healthy whole foods diet, regular exercise, and some supplements can all significantly improve recovery and help maintain some stability. Not everyone has a hard time during withdrawal, but for those that do it can be a haunting ordeal.