[Blue Poppy]

Hello all,

I spent more than 8 years on Paxil prior to my bipolar diagnosis. I still had some depressions, but the periods in between these were great.

Over a year ago I had a severe depressive episode and wellbutrin was added to the Paxil. I felt pretty good, but not back to my normal. In light of this, I decided to try something new. I went off Paxil and started effexor.

Well, I have taken lamictal, abilify, effexor and wellbutrin since and nothing felt as good as Paxil. I have asked to go back on it.

Have any of you gone back to previous med combinations that seemed to work better? Did you return to the glory years?

I feel desperate to feel better and I worry that I am putting to much hope in my old med. I am not quite sure how I would handle it if it doesn't work this time.

[BusyMomma2]

Im struggling now. For years I was awesome on my lamictal Zoloft combo. I went off it to have a baby then started a new pdoc since we moved.

Now I'm on lithium lamictal and occasionally klonopin. I often wonder if I should just go back to my old. But then I remind myself that he's the doc and there must be a reason we aren't doing that. And while I'm not perfect I'm okay mostly. So to drop it all and start a whole new therapy is scary to me knowing it could all be for nothing.

So I hear you I do.... For me it's too risky with kids and a full time job. Maybe it's less of a risk for you though? I just have no idea but you aren't alone in that boat!

[BipolaRNurse]

Paxil was my drug of choice as well; it worked beautifully for the most part for almost a decade, although I still had my winter depressions and had to ramp up my dose then to get through them. Finally, it pooped out in 2009 and I went on Wellbutrin.

What a cluster-mug THAT was......the stuff sent me into a black rage-filled mania during which I lost one job and pissed off just about everyone I knew. So I went off it, and then became a soggy, hot mess who couldn't even sit through an ASPCA commercial without crying my eyes out. THEN I went back on it, desperate to get out of the depression, and went right into my first mixed episode.

That was when I asked to go back on Paxil, and my PCP wouldn't hear of it. Neither would my pdoc, who told me basically that when a med stops working, it's done and you need to go on to something else.

[Blue Poppy]

........ oh i was afraid to hear this Bipolar Nurse, about the meds no longer working. Thanks though, for a reality check. I will give it six to eight weeks and reevaluate to see if anything has improved.

[BipolaRNurse]

You may be one of the lucky ones, Poppy, and I hope it works out that way for you. As they say, for every rule there is an exception (and sometimes even more than one); I wasn't the one, so maybe you will.

It's amazing what I did NOT know about psych meds before I was dx'd with BP, even as a nurse who works with the elderly and others who have dementia and psych issues. This has been a crash course, but I feel blessed to be able to use what I'm learning for the benefit of my patients as well as myself.

[Blue Poppy]

Originally Posted by BipolaRNurse

You may be one of the lucky ones, Poppy, and I hope it works out that way for you. As they say, for every rule there is an exception (and sometimes even more than one); I wasn't the one, so maybe you will.

It's amazing what I did NOT know about psych meds before I was dx'd with BP, even as a nurse who works with the elderly and others who have dementia and psych issues. This has been a crash course, but I feel blessed to be able to use what I'm learning for the benefit of my patients as well as myself.

I also work in healthcare, though in the rehabilitation/therapy area, so don't know much about psych meds. I feel like I am one continuous experiment, trying this drug and that one!

[BipolaRNurse]

Isn't THAT the truth!!! I was beginning to feel like a guinea pig myself until my pdoc and I hit on this combination that I'm on now. Unfortunately it includes a second-generation antipsychotic, which means that if I can't get my weight and blood sugars down some, I'll have to go off of it and try Geodon, which is less harmful but also somewhat less effective (or so I hear tell). I don't seem to be able to manage on mood stabilizers and antidepressants alone......got to have the "hard stuff" that causes so many other problems, but takes care of the mania. Who knew?