[BNLsMOM]

Can everyone share their experiences with mood stabilizers and which ones you take/ have taken?

I feel like I have tried them all and had negative/dangerous reactions to all of them.

Anyone find a good one? If I have to go back on meds, I want to request one that will have a good effect and few side effects. I know we are all different, but I just want to get an idea of what is out there.

[Wander]

On Sodium Valporate (Epilem) I fainted so it was immediately discontinued. Lamogtrgine did nothing at all for me. Lithium however makes a massive difference in stabilising my moods and reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviour. I stopped taking it 4 months ago and was hypomanic for 2 months then slowly fell into a horror mixed episode. Lithium was re-introduced a week ago and I am already feeling an improvement. The side effects of Lithium was why I stopped it; weight gain, tremors and thyroid issues. Now I feel these are worth dealing with to avoid the intolerable mixed states.

[Blue_Bird]

Lithium: Took 1800mg, got toxicity and ended up in the ICU for a week with kidneys failing and got put on dialysis

Depakote: What I'm on now, 250mg 3 times a day (total of 750mg) works great for mood stabilization with no side effects.

[Moogieotter]

Hi,

It sounds like you have probably tried them all. Lamictal, Depakote, and Tegretol were all effective for me. The only drawbacks are the blood tests for Depakote and Tegretol. There's a little cognitive effect - feeling a lil spacey with each, but they are still worthwhile for me.

Good luck,

moogs

[LettinG0]

I take Lithium. Works wonders for me. And, I have had zero side effects.

[czarina1984]

I've done lithium (toxicity 4x), zyprexa (tardive dyskensia), depakote (burning in ears/heartburn, lost hearing), latuda (tardive dyskensia), seroquel (slowed heart rate and stopped breathing often), risperidone (panic attacks), oxcarbazipine (didn't do anything), trazadone (severe stomach pain), lamotrigine (migraines), and a concoction of other add ons. Currently using lithium 900 mg with Saphris. Saphris, other that tasting nasty for a few minutes, has been great for no side effects. I've been on it at 20 mg for a little over 2 months and haven't had any bad effects.

[BastetsMuse]

Originally Posted by BNLsMOM

Can everyone share their experiences with mood stabilizers and which ones you take/ have taken?.

I started out using Depakote, which worked to stabilize my mood but I had intractable diarrhea while taking it. I also gained 60 pounds while on it... or more.

Then I switched to and used Topamax for about ten years. I don't think Topamax is a good stabilizing drug at all; it was new when I took it and I just wouldn't consider a change.

Three years ago, my pdoc suggested and put me on Geodon. I haven't had any weight gain, and I've been stable with it (180 mgs at night) and an antidepressant.

[Blue_Bird]

Originally Posted by BastetsMuse

I started out using Depakote, which worked to stabilize my mood but I had intractable diarrhea while taking it. I also gained 60 pounds while on it... or more.

Did you lose the weight after going off of it? If so, how long did it take?

[BNLsMOM]

It sounds like everyone has had such different experiences. My fear is that when I was diagnosed, I had never been hospitalized before. I just went to a therapist looking for marriage counseling with my husband (who is now my ex). Once I was placed on meds, I ended up hospitalized 10 times in 5 years. I feel that the meds made me so much worse. I developed severe paranoia and couldn't leave my house some days. I developed physical limitations as well and severe weight gain (which in two years I have been able to lose half of) It wasn't until I had a year's worth of ECT that I feel I turned the corner. I have been on some combination of the following:
Mood Stabilizers:
1. Topamax - made me feel weird and tingly on the lowest dose. I couldn't think or move correctly. I was floating. On higher doses, I felt frantic as if I would leap off a building just to get it to stop.
2. Trileptal - Had little effect on my mood and my depression deepened. Gained a bit of weight.
3. Lamictal - Lymph nodes all over my body swelled up within a week. I was quickly taken off Lamictal.
4. Lithium - I thought it was working for a while, though I always tasted metal, and felt sluggish. I think I remember it giving me the shakes and I had trouble feeding myself or writing. I was toxic once and they lowered my dose. I gained more weight. After a few months, I couldn't leave my bed. I physically couldn't stay awake. They thought I was toxic again, but when they took blood work they realized that my thyroid had crashed, and I was placed on thyroid medications. After a few months of that not working, I asked to be taken off Lithium.
5. Depakote - I was on this the longest and I gained so much more weight. My blood pressure went up and I had to take a beta blocker. My hands shook, I sometimes had trouble picking things up with my fingers and I just felt sick all the time.
6. Lamictal - Thinking that maybe I had been just fighting a virus the last time I took Lamictal, we tried it again. Within a week, my lymph nodes began to swell up again. I was taken off lamictal and a big red ALLERGY sticker was slapped across the front of my file folder. Then when I went to the hospital, I got to wear the red allergy bracelet.
Antidepressants -
1. Prozac. I was on different doses of this the entire five years.
2. Wellbutrin - No effect.
3. Abilify - Severe nausea and vomiting.
4. Trazodone - kept me wide awake for hours even though I was supposed to take it for sleep.
Antipsychotics -
1. Seroquel - Sleep, sleep, sleep... but only when I should't have been sleeping. At night, wide awake.
2. Geodon - Don't really remember, but I was only on it a short time.
3. Risperdal - Same as Geodon. I think I was paranoid on both of these and started hearing things like a TV in a room far away when there was no tv on anywhere.
4. Saphris - Made me insane. I completely lost it and had to go to the hospital after crying my eyes out on the phone begging my p-doc to take me off the med or I was going to do something really awful.
5. Invega - Made me feel very nervous and paranoid. I was only on it for a week.
Benzos-
1. Ativan - Made me crazy, nervous, total opposite effect than whet it should have.
2. Clozapine - Same thing. We gave up on benzos.

ECT - Miracle. Saved my life. Erased most of my memory for important life events, even those that happened before ECT.

But now, my life is unraveling and I need help. I am able to control my occasional suicidal thoughts so far, but they are so painful. I have been able to function enough to get my kids off to school, but I am failing in my business and don't feel that I would be able to hold down a job even though I am in danger of not being able to pay my bills and will eventually lose my home. I need to be able to function so that I can get a job! Each day is a little harder, socially. I am going on a first date with someone this weekend and I really like him based on our online interactions. I am afraid that my symptoms returning will ruin the possibility of it working and I am afraid that when I finally tell him that I have bipolar that he will run in the opposite direction.

[gayleggg]

I've been on Saphris for over a year now and like it a lot as it helps me sleep better too. It's worked better than any of the others I've tried.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[scatterbrained04]

Latuda has worked well for me at keeping depression at bay. It's not always perfect, but it's worked the best of anything. It made me hypomanic and then super irritable at first, but everything balanced back out after a month.

[BlackSheep79]

I've been on lamictal for just over eight years. No side effects and will stay on it forever. I gained forty pounds on Depakote in four months. Never again.

[PumpkinPieHead]

I am on 80 mg of Latuda, the only med I've ever tried.

Minimal side effects, some headaches, some akathisia. I feel as if it is not strong enough. I need probably an antidepressant. I can't wait for my next pdoc appointment.