[spitzkip]

Hi, all! I'm new to this site and I'm a little anxious posting, but I figured this might be a good place to find some community and help.

So I'm 21 and I have bipolar II and OCD, and right now I'm on quite a few medications: Wellbutrin 300mg, Lamictal 150mg, Lexapro 30mg, Buspar 10mg, and Hydroxyzine 25mg (as needed). I regularly take them daily, but within the last month or so I stopped due to stress and some mood flippage at school. Of course, that made things a LOT worse and lesson learned (this time for real, hopefully...), never do that again.

My concern right now is getting back on my meds on my daily cycle again. I took my bunch yesterday morning... and then threw up about an hour later. Part of me want to say I just ate too fast or just felt queasy/fatigued after moving back home from college the day before. However, I took my pills again approx. two hours ago and now I feel kind of queasy again. I haven't thrown up yet, though.

Does anyone have any recommendations for slowly getting back on meds? Side effects are inevitable, sure, especially taking quite a few different meds, but I mostly want to prevent the nausea/throwing up as I get back to routinely taking them.

[ibex]

Originally Posted by spitzkip

Hi, all! I'm new to this site and I'm a little anxious posting, but I figured this might be a good place to find some community and help.

So I'm 21 and I have bipolar II and OCD, and right now I'm on quite a few medications: Wellbutrin 300mg, Lamictal 150mg, Lexapro 30mg, Buspar 10mg, and Hydroxyzine 25mg (as needed). I regularly take them daily, but within the last month or so I stopped due to stress and some mood flippage at school. Of course, that made things a LOT worse and lesson learned (this time for real, hopefully...), never do that again.

My concern right now is getting back on my meds on my daily cycle again. I took my bunch yesterday morning... and then threw up about an hour later. Part of me want to say I just ate too fast or just felt queasy/fatigued after moving back home from college the day before. However, I took my pills again approx. two hours ago and now I feel kind of queasy again. I haven't thrown up yet, though.

Does anyone have any recommendations for slowly getting back on meds? Side effects are inevitable, sure, especially taking quite a few different meds, but I mostly want to prevent the nausea/throwing up as I get back to routinely taking them.

From what I know you can't just jump back on meds like that after being off them for a long period of time. You have to titrate back onto them...especially the lamictal. From my knowledge of Lamictal you have to restart the slow titration process after being off it for a long period of time. It's dangerous not to. There's the increased possiblity of developing the Steven Johnsons Syndrome (rash).
The buspar at 10mg would seem safe but the others are questionable. Adding them all together restarting them at the same time like that, IMO you wouldn't know what is doing what. You need contact your PDOC and have him/her to restart you back on to your meds. This would be dangerous to go it alone without his/her knowledge. Best of luck to you.
ibex

[spitzkip]

Originally Posted by ibex

From what I know you can't just jump back on meds like that after being off them for a long period of time. You have to titrate back onto them...especially the lamictal. From my knowledge of Lamictal you have to restart the slow titration process after being off it for a long period of time. It's dangerous not to. There's the increased possiblity of developing the Steven Johnsons Syndrome (rash).
The buspar at 10mg would seem safe but the others are questionable. Adding them all together restarting them at the same time like that, IMO you wouldn't know what is doing what. You need contact your PDOC and have him/her to restart you back on to your meds. This would be dangerous to go it alone without his/her knowledge. Best of luck to you.
ibex

Thank you for your response, I appreciate it!

Lamictal's the one med I'm afraid of most, yeah. It's the one I need the most and the most unpredictable of my meds. And unfortunately I'm not sure if I can go back to my old PDOC because my insurance has changed since my last visit, so I'll have to look into that (I've been seeing a different PDOC while away at college.) Whenever I'd slip with meds, my doctor usually said to ease back into it by taking it every other day or so for a week, but since now I'm on so many, that's why I figured I'd see what other things I could try/options to pursue.

As for right now, my recent queasiness is gone and I've eaten dinner without a problem, so that turned out alright at least.

[kecanoe]

That does sound like it ma be reintroducing too many meds at too high of a dose, all at one time. If you can't see a pdoc, maybe a GP would help you get back on by prescribing lower doses while you work yourself back up

[spitzkip]

Okay, so I have an update. I took my pills just to be safe and I felt a little off again, so I called to speak to both my school doctor and a pharmacy staff at my CVS/Target to see what they'd say (my PDOC couldn't talk...)

I'll be talking to my doctor again tomorrow to get some official directions on what to do. The pharmacy staff said to just rely on my doctor's instruction and be ready to titrate, especially for the Lamictal.

Thank you for your input!! Hopefully I get back on track as soon as I can, it's been a bumpy road and I'm not really interested in having my moods all over the place again.

[kecanoe]

Did your dr help?

[spitzkip]

Originally Posted by kecanoe

Did your dr help?

Yes, actually! She recommended some lower doses of my meds to stay on for a week until I see a PDOC at home. Thankfully I can split some of my pills and I still have some lower doses of others, so I'm good to go until I see him.

I've still been feeling nauseous and gross, but I think it's more because now that I'm home from college, I'm not eating as much garbage as I was before. It's probably just the readjustment period of eating healthier real foods as opposed to pizza and school foods.

Thank you for asking!!

Originally Posted by spitzkip

Yes, actually! She recommended some lower doses of my meds to stay on for a week until I see a PDOC at home. Thankfully I can split some of my pills and I still have some lower doses of others, so I'm good to go until I see him.

I've still been feeling nauseous and gross, but I think it's more because now that I'm home from college, I'm not eating as much garbage as I was before. It's probably just the readjustment period of eating healthier real foods as opposed to pizza and school foods.

Thank you for asking!!

FWIW, Lexapro is an SSRI; therefore, it alters the serotonin levels in your brain. Wellbutrin is an SNRI, which is slightly different from a SSRI, but it also alters the serotonin levels in your brain. HOWEVER, your digestive system has more serotonin than your brain does. So, when you introduce an antidepressant, it also affects your digestive system.

When I first started Lexapro, I threw up. The alteration of serotonin in my stomach caused serious nausea.

Your stomach was probably used to getting 0 serotonin stimulation (since you haven't been on meds for a while). So, when you introduced a SSRI and SNRI, the serotonin levels in your stomach went waaaaay up.