Treating Apathy?

So my psychiatrist thinks I have schizo-affective, and she's never very clear about it. She said last time I was bipolar, and she thinks my aspergers is a symptom of something similar to schizophrenia or that it's unnecessary to change the labels.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience or input on switching from Abilify to Trileptal and Vyvanse. I'm feeling wary. I feel kinda unsure of the instructions. I think she wanted me to taper off Abilify or experiment with what dose felt right. I chose Vyvanse at 20 mgs because she suggested it as better than Adderall.

She warned I could get a face rash like with Lamictal. I also brought up my EEG years ago was very abnormal in electrical signals, which could be a sign of a form of epilepsy which is linked more-so to a neurological problem like Aspergers or Bipolar. I've been researching Autism which is more like me, in that I had a very high memory retention but problems with hyperactivity and filtering out information.

I also lack normal affect. I hate it. I spent years trying to mimic normal types of behavior, but sometimes I'm just too slow to react properly or I'm inappropriate but not to the extreme I hope.

Will Trileptal work? I felt like my psychiatrist was undermining the fact that I'm just trying to fix my moods and have normal affect, not randomly pop pills to fix an unnecessary issue. What are the risks? Could I die? Abilify is ok, it helps with depression a little but not enough. It does help with auditory hallucinations in a mild way, but under-stimulating me but it's not fixing the problem more.

I also experience so much pain. I began seeking drugs to numb out the chronic pain and fatigue. I quit drugs, so I hope this will work better. Sorry for ranting.

Rant away! Sometimes it feels good just to let it all out.

I hope you and your pdoc can come to an understanding regarding diagnosis.

Have you seen your regular doctor and talked about the pain? It could be that blood/urine tests or others could find a cause that could be worked on to ease the pain.

It sounds like you and your pdoc are not having a very useful dialog. If something worries you or you don't like it or wonder at what he's thinking/doing, you should ask him about it. I'd tell him what you like and what you want to accomplish (address the affect) and keep telling him if he doesn't seem to "get it".

The poor doctors only see us maybe 20 minutes every now and then; I've been seeing my regular doctor 4 times a year for over 5 years and he still gets my last name wrong on my prescriptions :-) But over the year, when we are together for my actual appointment, we don't "argue" as much because he "remembers" me and I back up what I want/say/claim with actual medical papers I bring him :-) We have an okay working relationship now, despite his not knowing my name

Simplify more. Simplify by seeing only one Doc, and reducing the total number of meds you are on. The complexity of your treatment methods is out of control!