The same thing happened to me on Depakote, mind you I was on a high doasge of 1500mg and it turned me into a complete zombie. Since then, I have switched over to Lamictal, and am actually seeing my doc tomorrow to talk about the right dosage to titrate up too since the Depakote is finished now. My main problem with the Lamictal is just that it makes it very difficult for me to fall asleep, like I will get tired and everything but I just can't drift off, and thats taking in the am. I am not sure if he has me on the XR or not, so I will bring that up with him tomorrow, because it may be releasing too slowly and hence affecting my sleep. Back to personality though, I feel much better, I can actually feel some emotion again, which I couldn't while on Depakote.