mood stabilizers

My councillor wants me to go to the doctor to be put on some kind of mood stabilizers. I am a bit anxious now at starting tablets like these im not really sure mood stabilizers are.

I was lexapro atni depressants but they made me very suicidal and i am worried about taking medicines after this. i know each tablets are different but it wasnt a very nice experience. are mood stabilizers different to anti depressants ? Is there any1 else here on them could tell me there experience of them

The only mood stabilizer I was on was Abilify and it kept my thoughts of suicide down. The only other mood stabilizer I know of and I know there are many, but Lithium is another one.

Hey Danii,

I am on Depakote (Sodium Valporate) and Serequol (Quetiapine) which are also a Mood Stablizer along with Lithium as someone else has said . There is also Carbamazepine (Tegretol), Lamotrigine (Lamictal) these are the only other one's I know about. Oh you also have Risperidone and Olanzapine

Seroquel, Risperidone, and Olanzapine are not mood stabilizers. They are A-typical antipsychotics which is a completely different drug class.

I'm not sure about the other drugs Miss Laura listed.

Seroqueal, is ofter prescribed off-label, too often in my opinion as an anti-anxiety and sleep aid med due to its sedative properties, but to me that's like using an AK-44 to do a .22's job.

It's our job as patients to be informed about what drugs we're taking, what class they are, exactly why they're being prescribed, and their possible side effects. I'm not against A-typicals, I'm on a moderately high dose of risperidone. I am against psychiatrists prescribing it left right and centre and not informing patients of the risks associated with the A-Typicals.

splitimage

they are different and each one effects people differently. psychiatry is an art not a science. A lot of atypical antipsychotics are used as mood stabilizers.
I have been on seroquil, abilify, trazidone (not sure which class that one is in), zyprexa and there are some new ones out too. There is also lemictal.

When a "counselor" wants you "to be put on" anything, the counselor is not sticking to his or her job description. It would be alright for the counselor to say, "I think you should see a doctor." It would be alright for the counselor to say, "I think you have some issues that are outside of what a counselor can help you with." However, counselors have no business forming opinions about whether or not you should be "put on" medication or what type of medication might be of help to you.

It might be a good idea to see a regular doctor, or a psychiatrist, and talk about what kind of problems you are having. A doctor will try to come up with a diagnosis - like: depression or anxiety or lots of other things. Mood stabilizers are different from antidepressants. They tend to be powerful drugs that help some people a great deal, but can have side effects for some people that can mean the person can't take them.

I have taken quite a few different drugs. I took both mood stabilizers and antidepressants. When I took mood stabilizers, like lithium and Lamictal, they didn't do anything at all to make my mood more stable. Lithium made me quite sick.

Antidepressants in the tricyclic family help me a lot, and my life is a lot more miserable, if I am not taking them. Other types of antidepressants didn't help me at all. Most doctors don't like to start a patient on the type of antidepressant that I take. It is an old fashioned drug. They will order it for me because experience has shown that it works better than anything else.

Everyone is different. What is a big help to one person, might make another person feel worse. Taking a drug that is new to you is always an experiment.

i really appricate the avice but i think i wont go on them just yet. im saying i dont need them buyt i just want to try counclling just by it self. i appriucate all adivce but i hjad such a bad expereicnce on anti depressants im so afriad to go through it again

I am on lamictal (Lamotragene) as a mood stabilizer. I had a hard time going on it (very med sensitive) but am now stablized on my dose after a year. It does help - when I miss one I get manic, dangerous, and sui. and often self injure. I don't like having to be on it, but missing one reminds me real fast why I am.
good luck with whatever you choose.

Hey,
I have taken 2 different mood stabilizers, so I'll tell you my experience with them.

The first mood stabilizer I took was Abilify when I was about 17 years old. I didn't really have the greatest reaction to that med. I was taking it with Celexa, but my mood swings were more drastic and severe and my psychiatrist kept prescribing other meds to try to counteract the side effects, but nothing was working for me. So I was taken off of Abilify. Like I said, I didn't have a wonderful experience/reaction to Abilify.

I'm currently taking Lamictal, which is "technically" an anti-conversant, but is also used as a mood stabilizer. A lot of people, like myself, take Lamictal to lengthen the time between mania and depression associated with Bipolar Disorder.

However, it really depends on what your counselor is suggesting you go to the doctor for. Whether it's depression, self-injury, etc. it truly depends on the situation.

Would I recommend Abilify? No.

Would I recommend Lamictal? Yes.

I was on abilify for about 4 months and it worked well for me until I developed a really bad reaction to them. One of the severe side effects is uncontrollable shakes which can be perminate! Luckily I caught them early enough and I'm still trying to tapper off them. So, I would just know the side effects that can happen when you take them. But, the Abilify worked wonders for my mood.