[Love&Toil]

Going for my quarterly pdoc visit tomorrow. Will show her my huge tattoo (sleeve) that I now regret getting. Spent $2000.00 on it, it's that huge and full of colour. Will talk to her about my lady-looking time which lasted about 2-3 weeks. Will tell her about the lamp smashing in my kids' room. Otherwise I've mostly been stable. Feeling a lot of self-loathing right now but energy okay. We just came back from a hectic heavy adventure which was amazing but trying and may have rocked the boat a little in terms of mood. I don't know what else to tell her. I've been mostly okay. Sometimes I even doubt the diagnosis but then I think about what life was life before the meds.... that just means the meds are pretty good at working.

I wonder what would happen if I came off all three meds and went on lamictal? Not that I'm willing to try right now due to being in the middle of a huge project at work on which I have to work at a high level.

Sorry for this navel gazing post, I am just feeling really bad about myself now and just had to get it off my chest. Hope the rest of you are having a lovely evening.

[~Christina]

I hope you have a good appointment.
You might want to write down everything that is going on, just so you dont leave anything out.

[cashart10]

I'm so sorry you are feeling down.

I hope you have a good appointment tomorrow; I have one too.

[Love&Toil]

Thanks. I am usually very composed during our meetings and realize I should probably be revealing more of the "not so good" side of me to be helpful.

[Love&Toil]

Saw pdoc today. I didn't mention my sleeve but I didn't cover it up. Discussed the woman-looking thing but my dh said beforehand he didn't think I was hypomanic when I was looking. We discussed the lamp breaking and the fact that it was connected to my cycle... since I am having some breakthrough irritability the pdoc (in the first 20 minute session we had since November 2013) said she thought my AD's were too high compared to my mood stabilizer and is lowering my Wellbutrin to 150XL. Eventually she wants me to lower prozac to 20 mg.

That's all fine and dandy but I'm a bit nervous about lowering these meds as I have been coping pretty well up until now. But the breakthroughs.... what, am I never supposed to have anything other than a positive emotion? Or always be in control of myself? Is that it? Rowr hiss hiss (feeling b*****y about that - lol)!

Thank goodness we made the first med change today when I am on vacation. Tomorrow we start on the driving leg of our next trip and I hope I don't have any discontinuation symptoms that interfere with the driving or with treating my family well during this trip. But it's way better to do a med change now than when I'm back at work. I will have to change the prozac when I'm back to work but honestly it's the wellbutrin I'm most nervous about because it made me super aggressive once or twice as I was loading up on it. I may not need it at all after I lower the prozac because part of the reason we put me on it was that the prozac was a good AD but made me too sleepy. The wellbutrin was supposed to counteract that, and it does.

Thanks for listening gang!

Oh yeah, I also asked her about Lamictal which a lot of people here seem to like. She said it's a good AD and bipolar med but doesn't do much for anxiety and panic which I also have. Experiences? Thanks!

[Love&Toil]

Soooo I am starting the Wellbutrin XL 150mg, a switch from Wellbutrin SR 250 mg. I am awake and a bit anxious. Will try to fall asleep but feeling paranoid about side effects and discontinuation symptoms. I know I am not alone as many people on PC have struggled with this same issue while changing their meds. Goodnight!

[Love&Toil]

I have very mild discontinuation symptoms. I hope it doesn't get any worse than this. I need to be "ON" for my family this week while we are on vacation: driving, cooking, watching the kids, keeping house. Keep yer fingers crossed for me.

[lacerta]

Love&Toil hope everything goes well with the new med.

[cashart10]

I hope everything goes well with the med and with your vacation. Have a wonderful time!

[lilypup]

I took Lexapro for anxiety and it quickly worked well. I take Lamictal but don't feel it helps with anxiety.
I think you are doing wonderfully! Your vacation sounds tougher than a job with all you have to keep track of. Give yourself some room to be a bit grumpy here and there or to have some frustration with the med change.

[Love&Toil]

Thank you for all the sweet support. Coping very well, thank goodness, doing great all things considered.

I was on Lamictal for about 4 months (I'm bipolar with severe anxiety). I didn't feel like the Lamictal did anything for me...it definitely didn't help my anxiety. For a lot of people, Lamictal is an excellent mood stabilizer, though.