Lamictal has been helpful to me. I take great pride in my spunk and natural spontaneity and I was worried that it would make me boring. But it hasn't. I'm on a low dose and all it has really done is make it easier for me to manage my emotions. Before, I used to go from happy to irritable for no reason. I would just feel overcome with strong irritability and I felt like I couldn't turn it around once the feelings started to come over me. On the meds, I feel like I can sort of tell when I'm starting to feel out of sorts and I can readjust. It's hard to explain, and it's definitely not a fix-all, but it has helped. And in general, it has made those bouts of irritability less frequent and out of the blue.

I have gone off other meds completely and it did not go well. I unraveled and ended up in a residential treatment center. At the time, I was on Abilify, Luvox, and Straterra. As for going off Lamictal and starting it again, I'm not sure. I know that sometimes, you can get a very dangerous rash when you first start it if you raise the dosage too quickly. I know someone for whom that happened and their doc pulled them off Lamictal, waited a couple weeks, and restarted it. And it seems to be effective still. So I'm not sure.

I think that in general, stress can exacerbate a number of conditions, not just symptoms of mental illness. In general, it's good to try to eat a balanced diet, get enough sleep, and do some amount of exercise. Keeping a routine and a reliable schedule is beneficial for me.