[ilovebernie]

I have been on several drugs in the past 8 years. I started off on zoloft 50mg and stayed on that for 5 years, which was fine. After college I decided that I didn't want to be on zoloft anymore because I felt too anxious and i didn't want to be on meds for life. I was off meds for 6 months or so and felt awful, depression came back harder. I went to the MD and he prescribed ativan which was a disaster. Then I tried klonopin and I was zombie. Next I tried paxil which seemed to work. I didn't feel like it was enough though. i still felt anxious with racing thoughts and a lot of anger. (anger is my biggest issue which leads to many other horrible feelings...ie-jealousy, irritability, irrationality, etc.)
My MD said my personality was "fractured" and prescribed zyprexa which was great but again i was a zombie. Finally, he put me on a nice cocktail of lamictal and paxil. I finally felt like i was in a good place.
After almost a year of that, I decided I wanted off of paxil because I didn't see the point of a mood stabilizer and an antidepressant. ps-getting off of paxil was unbelieveably awful.
Anyway, i've been off of paxil now for almost 2 months and I am miserable. I'm very depressed, angry, have terrible insomnia and just hate everyone.
In addition, the lamictal is becoming an issue. My hair is falling out, i feel slightly incontinent and I don't think it's working anymore.
I don't know what to do. I don't want to increase lamictal for fear of baldness and 100% incontinence (i'm 26!!!). I'm considering going off of lamictal and just going back to straight up zoloft.
Any advice??

[DePressMe]

ilovebernie, I take lamictal, but so far I have not had a problem with it or the other meds I take.

I know this does not help you out in your situation, but I wanted you to know I read your post and I feel for you. Hopefully you can find a better combo of meds.

[drummergrl]

Okay bernie:
I say go to a pdoc and let them prescibe something for you, if you can. They know better what to give you for what symptoms you're having. I was on zoloft for a few weeks, but I couldn't stand the headaches. I went from there to paxil, but it didn't mix well with my chemo drug. I went to Lexapro, same thing. I did well for a while, but then I started
having more episodes of anger, rage, and severe depression. I finally went for a secong opinion to a pdoc, and he diagnosed me as bipolar 1. After being on the combo of Lamictal and Luvox, I feel like a different person.
The difference is night and day for me. I love this combo.
It has been a God send. If you are feeling bad again, I'd suggest going to a new dr. Is your's a psychiatrist? You need one of those to be correctly monitored and diagnosed.

[ilovebernie]

thanks for the comments!!
My MD is a psychiatrist. I recently broke up with my psychologist, she was pretty bad.
anyway, i feel that the lamictal/paxil combo was fantastic but the paxil withdrawal was harsh. i dont' want to feel that again and i don't want to continue losing my hair, etc. i'm quite torn on what to do. I see my MD Monday and i'll update him on my status.

[drummergrl]

Hey bernie!!!
Sorry I shortened your name, but it's easier for me. Anyway, I'm sorry you have the problems with Paxil. Like I said, it made me have lots of episodes and crying in the middle of the day for nothing. My friends, and youngest daughter would come by and I'd be a basket case. They were trying to convince me to seek further treatment. I had thought that it was hormonal, since I was told I would go into menapausing at 46. That didn't happen until I turned 51. In the meantime, I was having female problems and had to have a biopsy on my cervix or something....I was spotting all time and I thought it was cancer. I was wigged
out!!!! The results came back negative. So they wrote it off
as hormone imbalance. I ended up with cancer in my left breast, and went thru surgery and radiation 4 years ago.
When they operated on my left side a second time, I was already being prepped for a hysterectomy and bladder repair. Both had prolapsed and raced to the bottom. I think
the bladdr won!!! hahahahaha...................anyway, as time went on I developed more depressive episodes and finally
went for another opinion. It was what I suspected..........bipolar disorder. I have 1, as I have the manic and depression.

Sorry I babbled so much........like I said, sometimes I can be real chatty!!!

[need2move4ward]

Lamictal did the same to me, but it helped me with my anger and moodiness.
Have you tried Tegretol?
I read somewhere, that Prozac and tegretol work well together.
I took Celexa and Lamictal together years ago--did wonders.
I can relate to the anger and irritability.
Thank god I'm in therapy again

[mysteri]

Besides taking Lamictal and Wellbutrin and Cymbalta, I work in Mental Health. It is very common to take a mood stabilizer as well as an antidepressant. They work on different areas of the brain and work well in combination. Some people do worse on an "unopposed" antidepressant because it stimulates an area of the brain in such a way. Paxil has alot of side effects and is sometimes refered to as a "dirty" drug for that reason. Their are alot of newer antidepressants and your pdoc may want to try you on a different combination. As far as getting off them because you don't want to take drugs forever - that probably isn't a good idea. You have a disease just like diabetes or high blood pressure that you really can't "will" away. Studies have shown that going off and on of drugs sometimes makes the next depression worse. It is better to stay in the middle rather than up and down. I know I talk too much, but I hope this is a bit helpful. As far as the side effects, maybe they are unrelated to the Lamictal and need to be looked at separately. I was having some incontinence problems even before taking the Lamictal and turned out I was having bladder spasms for some reason. Several months of Detrol and it seems "cured". The only time I had a problem with hair loss was when I was pregnant. - fell out like I was a chemo patient (and I have thick hair) but once my hormones settled down that went away. Good luck and keep working with pdoc until you and he get it right.

[ilovebernie]

Wow, thanks for the feedback everyone!!

I went and saw my MD today and he prescribed me zoloft and insisted that i keep taking the lamictal.
I felt the best on my paxil/lamictal combo and hopefully i can go back to my happy state with the zoloft and lamictal. I do hope at some point though, that i can go off of lamictal, but like you said myserti, it is a disease and i might need to be on medication.

that is something i have had difficulty coming to terms with.

thanks for everyone's tips and thoughts. i really appreciate them all!!!

[ilovebernie]

One more question for you all--anyone on lamictal notice memory issues??
i have loss for words a lot and it seems as though my once razorsharp memory is fading!!!!

[drummergrl]

Hey bernie:
I'm not too sure about that one, as I was doing that already!! lol.....................not sure if it's Lamictal, or AGE!!!!
hahahaahha......................

[ilovebernie]

i'm 26 years old!!!!! i should NOT be having that problem!

[mysteri]

I have not heard of Lamictal causing memory isssues. I know Topamax (dopamax) does. I took it for awhile for migraine prevention and ndoc warned me that may cause memory issues. It wasn't an issue - my head was completely empty - I couldn't find the sentence, much less the word. Of course I started a new job around the same time and the person training me wondered what kind of idiot was replacing her. lol