Anyone Tried Lamictal? HELP

Hey yall,

Quick background. I have Schizoid Personality Disorder (undiagnosed), and PTSD from my time in the military. The doctor said since I have an axis I disorder, the PTSD, it`s hard to go back and say I had the Schizoid. But that`s not a big deal because the symptoms overlap and the PTSD probably made any underlying conditions worse. The reason I believe in my head that I have this personality disorder is because I recently read what it is and I felt as if I was reading a story of my whole life. But anyways, I was on remeron, wellbutrin, gabapentin, trazadone, and for a few days Zoloft but had a bad reaction. I asked the Dr. about mood stabilizers and he said lets try it out because you don`t seem to respond to SSRI`s. I hope it works. Anyone have any experience with this Lamictal? I`m on day 2 and feel a little better, but my jaw is clenching and I feel like I`m on another galaxy. My racing thoughts have gone away though. Now I`m only on lamictal, gabapentin, suboxone, and trazadone for sleep. Over time I`ve become very withdrawn and afraid to leave the house. I was on the train yesterday and extremely agitated with people. The guy sitting next to me got up because I guess he could see I was uncomfortable by my behavior, even though I never said anything. LOL. Now I sit in my room and listen to music and play video games. I`m a total space cadet but I want to get better and go back for my Master`s degree but I`m just not well enough. So my question after this too long message is: ANYONE HAD SUCCESS WITH LAMICTAL FOR MOOD SWINGS, ANGER, DEPRESSION, ETC. ?

Thanks for sharing your story. No working knowledge of Lamictal. Another way to find out people's thoughts on meds and other subjects is to go to the main website and search. Here is a link to side affects of Lamictal.
Psych Central - Search results for Side affects of lamictal

Yes! I have been taking this for years now.

In my case, it's not for PTSD, but for general anxiety and mood swings (mainly anger). Mood swings are what it helps most for though and, as far as my day to day is concerned, is why I take it. It was once thought I might be bipolar - this did not turn out to be the case, but I do have a "non-specific" mood disorder.

Without the Lamictal (for the record, I take generic lamotrigine), things as trivial as a small spoon being in the big spoon spot in the utensil drawer can instantly send me from totally fine, whistling-while-I-work to a level of wanting to just rip the drawer off its slides. In cases like this, even though I know from two seconds in it's nothing even close to get riled over, the feeling persists. This can happen even from "nothing" - I'll just feel a smoldering fire of anger inside without having a reason. I'll yell at my husband over the dumbest crap - "luckily" its so extreme he can tell what's going on... I've ripped towel racks off of walls, hit closets off kilter, broken things, thrown stuff when anger etc is pent up or stress high.

The internal revving of thoughts is just so cranked down with the Lamictal - normal me... Socially, those racing thoughts of agitation mixed with my total schizoid pd tendency to think I'm usually surrounded by idiots is ugly - being around people can be dually unbearable. I left conventional high school because I was so unhappy feeling those thoughts all day about everyone - the deciding moment was when I almost stabbed a kid with a pencil because he accidentally tapped the leg of my chair with his foot. I was afraid I'd end up decking a **t** in PE or something and ruin my own life. I share these things to lend example as to the type of issues the Lamictal has solved for me...I almost never get to those extremes of anger anymore - only if there is a situation in which I am legitimately very, very angry do I feel the med has its work cut out for it, lol. But, 95% of the time, it levels me out hard. And that is good.

I've not had experience specifically with your other meds, though I do take a different opioid for my anxiety specifically, and that has worked out best for me after years of searching...been taking it a few months, and it's been great. It can be totally crap to start - had a long side effect period for me with nausea/puking, headaches - but even during that time, I was less anxious, haha. SSRIs have zero effect on me either - also after years of experimentation, I finally found a doc that gave me a genetic test and found out I've got a defunct serotonin inhibitor, so SSRIs truly do not and will not work. So, instead of an SSRI for depression, I take bupropion (Wellbutrin), boosting my norepinephrine - it's better than nothing, and lets me get out of bed in the morning.

Lamictal side effects - they didn't last long for me. Definitely get air-headed. This is also true if I need a dose change/am taking too much during whatever changing seasons. I'll feel there, but not there, more so than my normal depressed self. It does give me tremors, though they are not crazy (like lithium was - eff that stuff) and are not constant. As far as I'm aware, it does nothing to help my depression - just the other mood swings, and curbs the really bad anxiety. I was taking only this for anxiety for a couple years as it made life livable, but now I need the aforementioned opioid in addition to cut more anxiety (something which has gotten worse separately).

Alllllllll of that said, I'd stick with it. It's really, really helped.

I've been taking a massive dose of lamotrigine for years (600mg).. this is what I've experienced, having dropped off it from time to time..

Early side effects are headaches which go away, and sometimes excessive yawning. It will stabilize your brain and regulate some of the circuits, but I don't really think it's a strong anti-anxiety drug. It's a good drug for pulling the bottoms (depression) up to more normal levels, but it doesn't bring manic highs down.

It's probably a neuroprotective agent, and that's a good thing for PTSD, because I think glutamate may be part of it. I'm a cPTSD / chronic trauma survivor.. I think it evens you out quite effectively but there is a fine line between evened out and apathetic for me. I don't really like taking it but at this point I really shouldn't stop.

The weirdest effect it has on me, which is awesome because I am a musician and do some recording on the side is a perfect sense of pitch. I can tell when anyone singing is a tenth of a note off, when someone is subtly using autotune; I can tune a guitar in 10 seconds.. very very weird.. maybe it is stabilizing inner ear crap.

Watch out for double dosing. I've done that and gotten so dizzy I wished I was dead.. lasted about 7 hours. That might just be the dosage (that'd be like 900mg on accident).

As Redsoft said, stick with it. It's really got no downside that I can tell, and it will even things out. If the initial side effects don't ease up in about 2 weeks, call the doc.