I saw my psychiatrist yesterday. I'm growing to like her, despite a slight communication barrier. When I describe my situation (I still must speak only English), I try to do so in simple English and use psychiatric terms I know she'll fully understand. And clear cognates, which I've picked up fairly well. I convinced her to ditch much of my quetiapine IR (Seroquel) in favor of more quetiapine ER (Seroquel XR). Truly, for me the XR is a much better option. Fewer side effects and I think even better at stabilizing my moods. I went from 400 mg of the XR and 250 mg of the IR to 600 mg XR and just 50 mg IR. Same dose of quetiapine medication as before, but different "action". I think the little bit of IR is still helpful at putting me asleep, but once I fall asleep, the XR helps me stay asleep. Last night, I also noticed a decrease in my evening/night appetite, which is another advantage of the shift. I convinced pdoc to make it primarily because I've gained a lot of weight lately, and grew frustrated with the over-sedation. I feel pretty good today. A little more energy.

I should add to the above, that over a month ago, I was on what's my new current arrangement of the "Seroquel(s)", and was notably depressed. However, the pdoc decided to raise my Lamictal (lamotrigine) dose simultaneously with the XR to IR shift of 200 mg. So now I'm back to the original XR/IR combo dosing, but still keeping the Lamictal dose higher than it was before. In the end, I guess all I ever needed was the increase in the Lamictal dose.

I have a history of Lamictal being activating for me (causing hypomania or mania). It's a med I need to be careful with and take with a sufficient counterbalance, but perhaps it was too careful last time, for me.