[robosuplex]

I just upped my dose of Lamictal on Friday night. Last time I upped my dose I was having terrible mixed episodes, was unable to go into work from all the crying and fear, and injured myself during an angry outburst. Once it leveled out I was cycling every other week with random mixed episodes.

This time... I didn't feel all that different from when I was on a level dose? I mean, I'm having a lot less ups and downs... it's mainly up! But I also am having an even harder time focusing. It's murder to try to concentrate on something I don't want to do. But if it's something I want to do I'm hyper focused and don't even realize I started it until 3 hours later. I dunno what it is but every thought I have (that's not work related lol) I feel like I HAVE TO IT RIGHT AWAY THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. It's like the message just speeds on by, doesn't even give my brain time to process what's happening and then I'm doing things I don't need to do. And, if I finally talk myself into sitting down to work I either have a panic attack or get really angry/twitchy? I'm still having a hard time sleeping... but this focus thing is killing me! I have to do my job and stay on a healthy schedule but my brain won't listen.

Does anyone have any suggestions for when they feel this way?

Hello Robosuplex: I see you did not receive any replies to this post, so I thought I'd take a whack at it. I'm not certain I really understand what you're experiencing. It sounds like something that is anxiety-related to me.

I experience situations where I'll be doing one thing & some idea for another "project" will come to mind & suddenly what I'm working on seems trivial & my new idea seems irresistible. So then my tendency is to go off & pursue the new idea, leaving what I was doing dangling in the wind, so to speak. Now that I'm aware of this tendency, I'm a bit less likely to get caught by it. But it still happens. At one time, this tendency also used to involve the expenditure of money to purchase supplies for the new project... most of which never got used.

To some extent I think this is a coping strategy. Focusing on something... anything... takes effort. And if it's something you're not really all that interested in doing, that just makes it all that much harder. For me, the main thing that has helped is simply my awareness of my tendency to do this type of thing. Also, if I can delay the urge to fly off into the new project, sometimes when I think about it again a few hours later, or perhaps the next day, by then it has lost it's luster.

Beyond that, since this appears to be anxiety related, some anxiety reducing activities such as physical exercise, meditation, breathing & relaxation techniques, etc. may be helpful. These kinds of things are, however more long-term sorts of aids. Their effect is cumulative over weeks & months of practice.

[Sheba976]

Originally Posted by robosuplex

I just upped my dose of Lamictal on Friday night. Last time I upped my dose I was having terrible mixed episodes, was unable to go into work from all the crying and fear, and injured myself during an angry outburst. Once it leveled out I was cycling every other week with random mixed episodes.

This time... I didn't feel all that different from when I was on a level dose? I mean, I'm having a lot less ups and downs... it's mainly up! But I also am having an even harder time focusing. It's murder to try to concentrate on something I don't want to do. But if it's something I want to do I'm hyper focused and don't even realize I started it until 3 hours later. I dunno what it is but every thought I have (that's not work related lol) I feel like I HAVE TO IT RIGHT AWAY THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. It's like the message just speeds on by, doesn't even give my brain time to process what's happening and then I'm doing things I don't need to do. And, if I finally talk myself into sitting down to work I either have a panic attack or get really angry/twitchy? I'm still having a hard time sleeping... but this focus thing is killing me! I have to do my job and stay on a healthy schedule but my brain won't listen.

Does anyone have any suggestions for when they feel this way?

Lamictal is only for bipolar depression. My psych doc told me this is the prime time of the year for Manic episodes. I told him I wasn't sleeping as well (when I'm down all I want to do is sleep) so he immediately dropped down my Wellbutrin. He said if I have any other symptoms of not sleeping, feeling up or agitated I will be on the Lithium route. You need something other than lamictal. Sounds like you might be headed down a bad path.

[Sad&Bipolar]

Have you discussed all these things with a T and/or Pdoc? I think you could get help with focusing by consulting one or both of them.