poptardqueen,
Here's my experience with the shield-shaped pill.
I've been on Lamictal for a long time and am now down to 300 mg a day. I had double vision at doses greater than 500 mg, so in lowering my doses of Lamictal, I was put on Topamax to compensate. With Topamax I get the same experience of not being able to speak, read, and write as well as I used to, and I used to be able to do those things extremely well. I'm now on a lower dose of Topamax for other reasons, so I'm starting to get better in that respect.
But back to Lamictal. Overall, Lamictal was the one medicine that started to help me through bipolar-disorder, but it turned out that it wasn't the only drug. The main thing to remember is that everyone reacts to a drug differently, and Lamictal clearly isn't working for you. It is possible to be medicated and not have your mind be dull and feel like a zombie. Talk to your doc and you can work out something new.