@BethRags: I'm glad to hear you spoke to your therapist, and I hope that will make everything a little more bearable for you.

Thank you

I agree that those of us with a history of mental illness and trauma likely need a much higher level of care, at least I know I do. My Pdoc thinks the feelings of betrayal in this instance tie into some trauma from the past and this amplifies the impact of the situation. I think that could be true, although I haven't worked out the details yet. I do kind of feel like the bipolar and the trauma are somehow "feeding on" each other, especially in dysphoric/depressed states of mind.

I entirely agree with your therapist. In addition, I feel sure that BD and trauma do feed off each other until they're so blended that it becomes difficult to discern one from the other.

Being able to take it more or less "as needed" was one aspect I liked about Seroquel, although now it turns out it's not enough. I will speak to my Pdoc about Lamictal next week. Like you, there's something about it that makes me reluctant to try it, but now that I've heard so many positive experiences it kind of pushed me over the edge to try it. I did read that it has relatively few side-effects, although I don't know whether that's just because it's a pretty new medication so not all side-effects are known yet. I guess we'll find out!

Honestly, from everything I've heard (I mean from others with BD) Lamictal really doesn't have side effects. The only concern is going up too rapidly and acquiring the horrible rash reaction - but the answer is to take it slow at first, and besides, the skin thing is extremely rare.